A New Chance For Adventure
by ARCEUS-master
Summary: Sequel to A New Chance At Life. Finishing the Johto region while traveling with two Legendary Pokémon, Latias and Latios, was certainly a joyous experience for Ash. With that region behind him, Ash has now set his sights on a new tournament: The Hoenn League, a journey that promises new challenges, new friends and rivals to be met, and a powerful evil ready to rise…
1. A New Adventure Begins

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.**

"Speech"

_'Thoughts'_

_"Telepathy" _

**Author Notes:** I hope you all enjoy this first introducing chapter of the Fanfic, and that the Fanfic as a whole comes out nicely and turns into a very enjoyable read for everyone in all its aspects, from the flashy contests to the exciting gym battles to the cool characters to the breathtaking Legendaries to the very dark Team Rocket subplot.

**Important:** This Fanfic is a sequel to **A New Chance At Life**, as such, it is highly recommended you read that fanfic first, in case you haven't.

**Chapter 1 - A New Adventure Begins**

* * *

><p>It was a relatively calm and quiet day, the sun shining brightly in the sky, not a single cloud overhead and the endless ocean stretching beautifully all the way up to the horizon and beyond. On the nearly endless expanse of clear blue water, a single ship sailed along. It was an extremely large transport ocean liner, painted in an elegant white color with a long red line on the bottom of the hull just a bit above the sea level. On the side of the hull and in the aft, the words 'S.S. Blue Star' were painted. It was a calm day. The sea was very tranquil and the wind blew by slowly, the gentle waves rocking the ship almost unnoticeable.<p>

As time passed and the hours went by the ship got closer and closer to its destination, Littleroot Town in the Hoenn Region. It would be around two days before they arrived at the Region. Naturally for our hero, Ash Ketchum, that would be literal torture to wait so long for the chance to get to a new region, to once again start the long journey to gather eight badges and qualify for the Pokémon League. However, he was actually enjoying the trip. Despite this not being a top-of-the-line luxury cruise liner, it was still very accommodating and had a number of entertainments which Ash was happy to exploit.

Ash and his Pokémon, along with Bianca, had been having a really great time enjoying what the cruise liner had to offer, relaxing and preparing for the new journey. Latias and Latios, both eager to learn the skill of unrestrained telepathy, decided to train themselves in their free time. Usually their habit of waking up early got them enough free time to meditate (much to Latias' dismay at how boring that was) and focus their minds.

Being a rather sunny day, just a bit before midday we find Ash's group enjoying themselves in the temporary vacation granted to them by the very long travel…

"Cannonball!" Ash shouted joyfully as he took a few jumps on a springboard situated a few feet above the side of the pool on the deck of the ship before launching himself in the air to dive into the water, tucking his arms and legs tightly to his sides as he crashed into the pool and made a moderately spectacular splash.

"Hey, watch it!" Pikachu yelled as he jumped sideways on the edge of the pool to dodge the water that had been splashed at him. "Ha!" he shouted. "You need to do better than that!"

Ash emerged from the pool, taking a few quick breaths before chuckling. "Aw, I wanted to soak you," he said in a fake disappointed tone, barely containing the urge to burst out laughing.

Pikachu laughed. "You failed," he said back at him. He didn't count on the invisible Latios floating behind him to lightly bump him with his head, causing the Electric-type to lose his balance and fall to the pool. "Aaahh!" he screamed before falling in, causing a rather small splash.

Latios laughed as Pikachu emerged from the pool, taking quick breaths. "Why you…" the Electric mouse muttered angrily, preparing an electric attack for the eon dragon.

"I suggest you don't do that," Latios said. "Unless you want to shock everyone in the pool."

Pikachu paused and admitted he was right. Glancing around and seeing all the other families and people in the pool, he sighed disappointedly but grinned afterwards. "I'll just add another Thunder to my 'to shock Latios' list."

Latios laughed. "Alright," he said off-handedly. He smiled as he enjoyed the moment, feeling the sun's warm rays caress his currently-invisible feathers. It was a beautiful day. Currently the group was on the uppermost part of the ship, where the large outdoor pool was located. It also had many beach chairs and umbrellas and a large refreshment stand at the far end of the pool.

"Come on, Latios! Get in! The water's great!" Ash called to the eon dragon, leaning over the edge of the pool, just in front of where Latios was. Pikachu followed, leaning over besides Ash, but with some difficulties considering his smaller size.

"No thanks," Latios answered, shaking his head on reflex, only to resist the urge to smack himself when he remembered he was invisible so any gestures he made would go completely unseen. "If I get in, I'll have to reveal myself since people would freak out at seeing a transparent silhouette in the water, and if I float out of the pool, the water dripping from me would be a dead giveaway, and as you already know I don't like revealing myself to the public."

Pikachu snickered. "Great Legendary Pokémon Latios is afraid of a few humans in shorts and bathing suits, now that _is_ very shocking," he said teasingly, making a toothy grin. Ash laughed at that. "Just this once Latios. Plus, I don't think any of them are Pokémon trainers, they're probably just families on vacation or something like that. Plus, if one of them _is_ a trainer, we'll just tell Ash to say no to a battle for now, and if it's a persistent guy, we can just beat them up," Pikachu continued, confident on their team's collective power.

Latios fidgeted uneasily, not that they noticed since he was invisible. "I don't know… I've been used to secrecy ever since I was little…" he said nervously.

Pikachu laughed. "You didn't have much trouble revealing yourself to thousands of fans at the Silver Conference," he pointed out. "Though you were very nervous the first time around…"

"But in the Silver Conference there was a large wall between the crowd and me," Latios countered. "Here, there's nothing…"

"This is a vacation ship for many. There probably aren't even any trainers in the first place, the most they might want is a photo with you or an autograph out of Ash, and even if there are a few trainers, how can they beat a team that got third place in the Silver Conference?" Pikachu responded, grinning since he knew he was winning the argument. Ash laughed at that, remembering how some passengers had recognized him from watching the Silver Conference and already asked him autographs or a peek at Latios. Thankfully, the number was small.

Latios hesitated. "Ermm… but…"

"And you could also count it as a vacation for us as we've been enjoying ourselves too, so try it! We're here to have fun while we get to Hoenn anyway," Pikachu added.

Latios hummed in thought, looking around the people that were on the deck and noting that none of them seemed dangerous. "But I've never revealed myself so openly," Latios countered.

"Really?" Pikachu asked, snickering. "Pallet Town party ring any bells?"

Latios paused. "Oh, about that…"

"It's pretty much the same here," Pikachu added.

"I'm not revealing myself!" Latios snapped. Pikachu sighed in exasperation.

In the meantime, unnoticed by the boys as they were too busy arguing, Bianca and Latias were walking onto the pool deck. Since Latias was in her human form, it looked as if they were twins, even down to the same swimsuit, a green and white one-piece that showed off their ample curves. Hanging in Bianca's arm was a small bag with towels and anything else they might need. "Did you really have to wear the same swimsuit I have?" Bianca asked, looking over Latias a few times. At least the dragon girl's appearance copying ability had the benefit of giving Bianca something better than a mirror to see how she looked.

Latias shrugged. _"__I __didn__'__t __get __any __better __ideas __on __what __to __use, __so __I __decided __to __copy __you,__"_ she said off-handedly. _"__Plus, __I __like __this __color.__"_

"That's the same colors as my everyday clothes, stop stealing my looks!" Bianca said playfully, laughing afterwards. Latias laughed too, albeit silently.

"_Oh, __and __thanks __for __helping __me __with __that __surprise,__"_ Latias said happily.

"You're welcome, glad to help, Latias," Bianca answered. "Does everyone else know?"

"_Latios __and __I __told __them __all, __except __Ash. __The __surprise __is __ready __for __tomorrow!__"_ Latias replied.

Bianca nodded at her as they continued walking. They arrived to their deck chairs and took a seat at the edge. They turned to the pool to see where Ash and Pikachu were and saw them leaning over the edge of the pool just a few feet from them and apparently talking to thin air. Both of them knew very well who they were talking to. After all, several months for Ash and years for Bianca's of living with two dragons that could become invisible made talking to apparently nothing seem pretty normal. Bianca raised an eyebrow. "What's up with them?" she asked the red Eon dragoness.

Latias listened a few seconds to their conversation and laughed. _"__They__'__re __trying __to __convince __my __brother __to __reveal __himself __and __get __in __the __pool __to __have __some __fun.__"_

Bianca laughed. "Knowing Latios, he's never going to accede, what's he got to fear here?" She wondered, looking around. "A bunch of people in swimsuits?"

Latias looked around as well. _"__I __don__'__t __know, __but __you __already __know __he __keeps __himself __in __secret __a__lot. __That__'__s __just __my __brother __being __himself.__"_

"Think there's anything bad about him revealing himself here?" Bianca asked curiously, a small devilish smirk tugging at her lips.

Latias shook her head. _"__Not __really, __I __mean __it__'__s __a __cruise __liner, __I __think __it__'__s __perfectly __safe__… __it__'__s __not __like __there__'__s __anything __to __fear,__" _She answered telepathically. They grinned at each other, a plan already formulating, and they didn't need Latias' mental powers to know what they were planning or get in perfect sync. With a nod, they slowly and silently walked towards the boys…

"Latios, for the hundredth time, have fun you big grouch! Get in!" Pikachu said, a vein of irritation popping in his forehead as he struggled to resist the urge to get out of the pool and use Iron Tail or Thunder on the dragon.

"I don't know… I don't want to reveal myself! So uh… it's a no," Latios replied, shaking his head rapidly, again not that anyone saw it. Being so distracted in his argument with Pikachu and Ash, he failed to notice the two girls approaching him from behind.

Ash and Pikachu noticed and began to slowly move sideways, already knowing what was going to follow. Latios blinked in confusion, turning to stare at each of them several times. Latias grinned, mentally sending an image of the sight in front of her to Bianca so she knew exactly where Latios was despite his invisibility. "Now!" Bianca yelled as she and Latias charged forward.

"Wha-" Latios uttered out before being tackled by Latias and Bianca. The impact pushed him forward so he was far enough to get into the pool. Latias wrapped her arms around his upper neck in a sort of headlock while letting herself fall, trying to draw him into the pool. Latios reacted as fast as he could, boosting the power in his levitation to hold the unexpected added weight, but it was too late, and with Latias' own powers pushing downwards plus the weight of Latias and Bianca added to the surprise of the attack, he was defeated.

Latios crashed into the pool with a very large splash that attracted quite the attention, along with Latias and Bianca, not that they minded. Pikachu and Ash laughed at their victory. Bianca and Latias emerged from the pool and laughed as well, again silently in Latias' case. "Nice one!" Ash cried, barely being able to speak from the laughter.

The surprise, plus some psychic coaxing from Latias, caused the blue Eon dragon to drop his invisibility. Pikachu chuckled as Latios slowly resurfaced and started spitting out water. "You could have made this a whole lot easier," Pikachu chided, and resumed laughing when it was too hard to keep a straight face.

Latios shook his head to clear water from his eyes. _"__I__'__ll __get __you __two __for __that!__"_ he said, glaring at the girls. Latias and Bianca just laughed harder. Seeing them laughing caused a smile to tug at his lips. Within a few seconds, he was laughing along with them.

"See, now this is fun," Pikachu commented, trying to contain the laugher.

Latios grinned and used his mental powers to lift a small amount of water and splash Pikachu with it. Latias, Bianca and Ash, seeing it, decided to defend the yellow Electric-type and turned to Latios and began to splash him. "Hey!" he exclaimed in surprise, closing his eyes to avoid more water getting in, and once Pikachu had recovered from the splash he joined in.

Latios knew that he could simply avoid it by flying up, or down, but that would kill the fun, so he decided to play along and defend himself as best as he could from the splashing, and began to splash them back without the use of his mental powers as Latias had just screamed in his mind that was cheating.

The other people in the pool area stared at the odd scene for a few seconds. Those that weren't into Pokémon battling and thus didn't know much about the Silver Conference or rarer Pokémon species dismissed it as just a random Pokémon trainer playing with his Pokémon and went back to their personal fun. Those that were either fans of Pokémon leagues or trainers themselves were a bit more shocked. It was hard to see a Legendary Pokémon that they remembered had defeat many Pokémon in the Silver League easily just playing around in a pool with his trainer and another pair of girls in such a carefree manner, it was a rather odd sight.

…

Meanwhile in the dining room of the cruiser…

"Team Rocket eating at the speed of light!" Jessie, James and Meowth cried happily as they continued eating frantically, a pile of two or three plates beside each of them as they munched down at their current dishes. They were seated in a semi-circle couch with a round table in the middle in the far corner of the room where it was less likely for people to notice them.

"Hurry, keep eating before they realize we're stowaways!" James said perhaps a bit too loudly, munching down on some steak and salad from his plate.

Jessie kicked him under the table, causing James to let out a pained cry as he almost choked on his steak. "Keep it down, you idiot!" she hissed, pausing from her own frantic eating to talk before going back at it. Meowth looked at them and shrugged, deciding to just keep eating.

Thankfully for them, it was a 'free' all-you-can-eat-buffet, but the only problem was that the buffet was free so long as they were passengers of the ship since the meals were included in the full service ticket cost. So long as none of the two or three waiters walking around to check up on the passengers came along and asked questions, they should be fine.

Just beside them, at another table, were another bunch of very odd customers, albeit it was just two of them. In fact, they weren't even human to begin with, but two small Pokémon. "Yummy!" Phanpy said happily, munching down on some desserts.

"Agreed," Larvitar said simply, eating a large plate with a complete meal of steak, rice and salad. He finished it in less than a minute, grabbed the plate, put it on the very big pile of plates that was beside him, and moved on to the next one. The pile of dishes was even bigger than all of Team rocket's plates put together!

Phanpy looked between the only plate he had eaten and his dessert and back to Larvitar's large pile of plates. "Wow, you sure eat a lot, little brother."

Larvitar had just finished another plate and was moving to the next one. "Well, I'm hungry," he answered, proceeding to attack the next meal.

Phanpy looked around nervously. "Are you sure it's okay?"

Larvitar shrugged. "Don't worry, it'll be all fine."

"Are you _really_ sure it's okay?" Phanpy asked, still nervous on what they were doing.

"Don't worry, Pidgeot is waiting outside for us, so we'll be okay," Larvitar said offhandedly, already munching at yet another plate.

"Its _Aunt _Pidgeot," Phanpy corrected him.

Larvitar rolled his eyes. "This is delicious! Though Brock's Pokémon food tastes very good too, this human food is even better!"

Phanpy blinked. "Doesn't your kind need to eat dirt and soil?" he asked as he grabbed a cupcake from his tray and shoved it into his mouth, eating it gleefully.

"That's just to keep the rocky skin healthy," Larvitar answered casually, already moving on to the next plate. "But soil and dirt don't taste that good. This in turn, is extremely tasty."

Phanpy looked at him in confusion. "I haven't seen you eat any soil," he commented.

"I have eaten it, but it's not that big of a deal to be paying attention to it," Larvitar replied between taking bites out of the food on his dish. "Mm, this tastes so good!" he said happily, continuing to eat away at the food, his pile of empty dishes already so _huge_ even Ash and Team Rocket would be proud (and jealous) of it.

Phanpy smiled cutely, loving to see his adopted little brother so happy. "Hey, while we were following Aunt Latias and Bianca and snuck in, they were talking to the weird cook guys… what do you think it was for, brother?" he asked curiously, forgetting for a bit about that very important thing his aunt Latias had mentioned.

"Ash's surprise birthday party, remember? It's tomorrow," Larvitar answered. "They asked the cook in charge to bake them a cake or something like that. After that I took the opportunity to sneak in here just a bit…"

"Ohh, sorry, I had forgotten about that," Phanpy said Mareepishly.

Larvitar rolled his eyes again. "And we were explicitly told not to spill it to Ash, so don't say anything," he said to the small blue elephant-like Pokémon seriously.

"Okay!" Phanpy said as he nodded and went back to his lone desserts dish. "What if the humans that manage this place get mad at you for eating so much?"

Larvitar shrugged and went on to the next dish. "I have a backup plan."

Phanpy nodded. "Okay!" he chimed. The Ground-type looked at the table and noticed that the food they had brought was starting to run out. "We'll need to bring more food shortly…"

"We can just steal from the guys beside us," Larvitar said off-handedly.

Meanwhile, one of the waiters was walking by and Team Rocket froze as he turned to look in their direction. They felt even worse when he began walking towards their area. "Oh crap…" James said lowly. "We're busted…"

Jessie gulped, trying to think of something. "Act natural!" she exclaimed, that being the only thing that got to her mind in time. The trio nodded and acted like a regular group of passengers as best as they could. Thankfully for them, the waiter passed by and turned to the table beside theirs. Once Team Rocket saw the waiter had not gone to their table, they sighed in relief and resumed eating.

Phanpy turned to the waiter nervously while Larvitar kept eating without really caring about him. "What the…" the waiter muttered, looking at the two Pokémon. "How did you two get in here? I'm sorry, but I'll have to ask you to leave…" he said, unsure whether he should be kicking them out or not. They might be aggressive or something… He then glanced at the empty pile of dishes. "Wow…" he muttered in astonishment.

The waiter reached out to try to get Larvitar off the table, and Phanpy's eyes widened fearfully when he saw Larvitar taking a deep breath, clearly preparing to unleash his dreaded ultra-powerful Screech attack. Phanpy quickly wrapped his trunk around Larvitar's mouth, closing it and stopping him from Screeching.

The waiter blinked in confusion. Larvitar closed his eyes and took a deep breath to try and calm himself down, though it was a bit hard considering the blue elephant-like Pokémon was muffling him. Larvitar decided that the meal was worth way more, so he switched to his plan B in case something like this happened. He reached beside him and showed the waiter a keycard, the one that served to open Ash's room in the ship.

The waiter sweatdropped as that effectively proved that they belonged to a passenger, but he wondered if the free-meal offer of the tickets extended to the passengers' Pokémon too, and even more to the amount of food said Pokémon were eating. "Well, I'm not-" the waiter began, and paused when Larvitar showed him something else. It was the stub of the ticket that was handed back to passengers to keep as a souvenir, and also was used to prove that they were passengers. The waiter blinked. "Oh…I see. I'll just ask the chief waiter if the rights extend to the Pokémon," the waiter muttered before walking back, having no idea how to deal with this situation, clearly confused and feeling kind of stupid for arguing with a _Pokémon_ no less.

Phanpy sighed in relief and released Larvitar's mouth. "You need to stop screeching like that brother," he commented.

Larvitar looked at the light blue Ground-type apologetically. "Sorry, force of habit, and he got too close for my liking."

"Its okay bro," Phanpy told him, patting him on the back with his trunk comfortingly.

Larvitar nodded and smiled at him, feeling happy for having Phanpy's brotherhood. That coupled with the rest of his 'family' made him feel special, like he had had his mother with him all along. He sighed; mentally promising he would find her and save her. He knew his family would help him all the way. He put Ash's room key and ticket on the table again, and turned back to the task at hand, eating more. "Tasty…" he muttered quietly as he dove back to the dishes.

Phanpy laughed. "Just how did you get those, brother?" he asked, pointing his trunk at the keycard and ticket. "I thought that was daddy's plastic thingie to open our room."

Larvitar nodded. "It is, I just… borrowed it for a bit while no one was looking, in case someone wanted to cut my meal short," he replied, already discarding another finished plate and beginning with the next.

"Wow, nice thinking, brother!" Phanpy said cheerfully, deciding that another dessert would be nice to eat for now.

After a few more minutes of eating, they were finally done, though Larvitar considered going back to the buffet bar and getting a bit more food, or stealing from Team Rocket's table. Even Team Rocket was done, though their dish pile just couldn't compare to Larvitar's.

Phanpy looked up as a different waiter came to their table. Unknown to them, it was the chief of the waiters. "Uh-oh… this seems bad…"

"Oh my…" the waiter muttered in astonishment. "I know the meals come included in the ticket price, but, this is excessive…" he crossed his arms in anger and glanced down at Larvitar and Phanpy. "Where's your trainer? Or the passenger that brought you two along? He's paying extra for this!"

Phanpy looked around nervously, knowing they were in trouble. Larvitar just stared at him with his practiced lifeless and emotionless look. The waiter actually took a step back from the cold stare, it was very frightening. Larvitar couldn't help but chuckle, he loved doing that! Phanpy walked closer to Larvitar. "Please tell me you have something to bail us out of this, now we're in trouble…" he said nervously.

Larvitar looked around for a second. He also didn't want to get Ash in trouble. He noticed a certain group nearby and a perfect plan clicked into his head. "Don't worry brother, watch this."

The waiter glared at them. "Who is your trainer?" he demanded again. Larvitar walked to the edge of the table and pointed at Team Rocket, who were resting from their own meals.

Phanpy blinked in confusion. "They're our trainers now?"

Larvitar nodded. "Yep."

"You!" The waiter demanded, turning to Team Rocket, startling them.

"Ahh! What!" Jessie said frantically, nearly jumping out of her seat from fright. Larvitar grabbed Ash's keycard and ticket before motioning for Phanpy to follow him. He jumped off the table and began to walk for the exit. The small blue elephant jumped down from the table as well and followed him.

Larvitar chuckled. "It's good it was a different human, if it was the same one he could have remembered we had one of those plastic things to identify Dad," he commented. "I hope Pidgeot isn't mad at us for escaping from her watch…"

"Its _Auntie_ Pidgeot," Phanpy corrected him, grinning happily.

Larvitar blinked. "We just met her one or two weeks ago!"

"She's still part of the family, so she's my dear auntie," Phanpy said stubbornly.

Larvitar laughed. "Anyway, let's keep going before those three realize what we did."

Phanpy nodded happily, surprised by his little brother's skill to plan ahead and improvise on the spot, even if it meant setting up Team Rocket for some double trouble. "Yay! We tricked them!" They both laughed and made their way for the exit.

"You're paying extra for your Pokémon's food!" the waiter demanded to Team Rocket. He took a peek at Team Rocket's own dish pile. "And for yours too!"

"What!" James said, confused.

Jessie glared at Meowth. "Just how much did you eat?" he demanded of the feline Pokémon, who just blinked in confusion, wondering what the hell was up.

"I ate just as much as you two!" Meowth retorted angrily.

Another waiter came by and handed the first one a note. "Here's the charge for the extra meals," he said, handing Team Rocket the note. Their eyes bulged at it.

"What! Over five thousand PokéDollars just for all this! It's way too much!" Jessie screeched, turning to look at their food pile and then back at the note several times.

"We didn't break anything, now did we?" James asked worriedly.

The waiter paused and shook his head. "Oh no, it's just one thousand and four hundred for you three's extra meals, the other extra three thousand and six hundred come from there," he said, pointing at the table Larvitar and Phanpy had been eating at. "It's the bill for all that your other two Pokémon ate."

James' jaw dropped. "Those aren't our Pokémon!" he said quickly, looking around and seeing Larvitar and Phanpy already exiting the dining area as the door closed behind them.

A vein of irritation appeared on Meowth's forehead. "Why dose rotten little… dey scammed us!"

James nodded angrily. "We're supposed to be the ones scamming, not being scammed!"

Jessie fumed. "How dare they scam the scammers?" she muttered, shaking in rage.

The waiter glared at them, breaking them out of their loathing. "They pointed at you, and they left already. Someone's gotta pay…" he said dangerously. "Now, may I see your ticket or keycard so I can make the extra charge?"

Jessie, James and Meowth looked around nervously. "Well… eh… there's a really funny story about that…" Jessie began.

James nodded, taking after her. "Yeah… it's very complex…" he added.

"A Growlithe ate it!" Meowth blurted out. "Now! Team Rocket getaway!" They quickly stood up and ran for the exit. "Team Rocket's running away at the speed of light!"

"Security!" The waiter bellowed, and around five rather bulky guys in uniforms appeared nearby. Each had a Pokéball in their hand. "After them, they're stowaways!" the waiter accused, pointing at Team Rocket. The Security Guards chased after them.

"Hey, why do we always say 'speed of light,' don't you think that's getting overused?" James wondered idly as he ran.

Jessie shook her head. "Nope! It's good as it is!"

Meowth nodded, snarling. "Wait until we escape from dis crummy security, dose two are payin' for dis!"

Meanwhile, Larvitar and Phanpy came out onto the walkway running along the side of the ship, smiling at the fact that they had gotten a really nice meal for free and that they had screwed with Team Rocket in the process.

"Finally! About time!" Pidgeot exclaimed in a _very_ annoyed tone, glaring down at Phanpy and Larvitar from her roosting place, her talons wrapped firmly around the railing of the ship. "Do you two have any idea how long you've made me wait out here? Peeking through those weird circular windows to check up on you two is hard! When those guys got near your table I was prepared to burst in should they try anything!"

Phanpy stepped forward. "Sorry Aunty Pidgeot, my brother Larvitar ate a lot…hehe," he said with an apologetic tone, chuckling nervously. He smiled up at her in the cutest way he could.

Pidgeot couldn't help but sigh, finding him too cute to stay angry. "Oh, well… caretaking the two of you is harder than I thought…" But she looked down at them gently nonetheless. As a Flock leader, she had to see to the wellbeing of even the infant Pidgey, so over time she had developed quite the maternal skills, so she was confident she could handle them fairly well. She was very surprised when she discovered Ash had gotten two youngsters like them with him, even more that they called him 'Daddy' and referred to everyone else as family.

"You two…" an angry voice growled beside them. Larvitar and Phanpy turned to see a very pissed-off Team Rocket glaring down at them, and also panting from so much running.

"Hi…" Phanpy said nervously, taking a few steps back.

"Uh-oh…" Larvitar muttered.

Team Rocket grabbed one Pokéball each. "We're making you pay for this…" they muttered in unison. "Literally!"

Pidgeot jumped between the two infants and Team Rocket, spreading her wings menacingly. "Don't you three even dare…"

"What did it say Meowth?" Jessie asked, still grasping her Pokéball. However, before Meowth could answer her, another voice boomed over them.

"You two, stop!" the cruise security guards screamed, appearing from a door nearby.

Team Rocket panicked, and ran towards Pidgeot, pushing past her and down the hallway. "This isn't over!" they cried as they entered the ship once more, the security guards following closely.

Pidgeot sweatdropped and glanced down at the two infant ground-types. "What did you two do?" she asked.

"Nothing," Phanpy said immediately.

"Yeah, nothing," Larvitar agreed.

Pidgeot didn't believe them one bit. "Kids…" she said in a bit of an irritated tone, tapping her talons on the floor impatiently. Both Larvitar and Phanpy looked at each other nervously.

Phanpy walked forward and tapped his trunk on the side of Pidgeot's foot. The Bird Pokémon stared down at him in confusion. "Tag! You're it!" Phanpy chimed before curling into a tight ball and rolling away down the hallway.

"Get back here!" Pidgeot yelled, taking off and flying after the Ground-Type. Larvitar blinked and began to walk after them at a sedate pace, not really in the mood to run around after all that he'd eaten. He wondered how Phanpy could roll around after eating. Then again, compared to what he had had for lunch, Phanpy's food consumption was tiny.

"Nananana! You can't catch me, Auntie!" Phanpy sang happily, skipping and dancing along before curling up and rolling away as Pidgeot was about to catch up to him. A really long chase had just began.

…

The day went by quickly for the group. Now it was noon, the sun almost touching the horizon. The non-stop fun had helped to quickly pass the time. Despite Latios' constant fear of being exposed to humans, nothing worth noting happened, which just became an irate point for the Eon Dragon as Pikachu wouldn't stop teasing him about how much of a funny mental image it was, a Legendary Pokémon being 'scared,' as Pikachu liked to put it so eagerly, of a bunch of Humans in swimsuits.

Pidgeot, Larvitar and Phanpy had joined the group by the pool after a while since Phanpy had been making Pidgeot fly around the ship trying to catch him, until she did, though Phanpy said she cheated since she had used Aerial Ace, and Pidgeot pointed out that he had been using Rollout all along. Larvitar had very quietly returned the keycard and ticket so that it seemed as though they were never missing in the first place.

Now, the group was just relaxing in the deck chairs, looking at the ocean and setting sun calmly after the playful day. At least, Bianca, Latias, Latios and Ash were. Pikachu along with Pidgeot and the two infants were on the side of the railing talking to each other. They laughed as they told Pidgeot more of Ash's Johto adventures that she had missed.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Bianca commented, gazing at the setting sun with a smile, a small sketchbook in her lap as she drew the oceanic vista. Her friends had been very surprised when she had brought it along, but she replied that she always liked to have one on hand just in case a nice scene to draw appeared.

"Yeah," Ash agreed. "It's really cool…"

"_Beautiful__…"_ Latias agreed as well. She also had a sketchbook that Bianca was nice enough to loan to her as she tried to draw the same thing as Bianca. _"__I __need __to __catch __up!__"_ she said in frustration, gazing between her drawing and Bianca's. The difference in quality was quite clear, with Bianca's in the much better position, much to Latias' dismay.

Bianca laughed. "Practice makes perfect, not that my drawings are perfect, that's just how the saying goes."

Latios nodded in agreement. _"__Don__'__t __worry __Latias, __I __think __your __drawing __is __very __good, __just __that __Bianca__'__s __is__… __uh__… __better.__"_

Latias grinned and handed Latios another sketchbook. Latios blinked at it in confusion. _"__Dare __you __to __draw __something,__"_ Latias challenged.

Latios shook his head. _"__No __thanks,__"_ he said quickly.

Latias stared at him cutely. _"__Aw, __give __it __a __try, __brother!__"_ she said happily.

Latios sighed, not being able to resist her adorable smiles, even in Human form. His eyes glowed slightly as he lifted the sketchbook and coloring pencils from Latias' hands. _"__So, __what __should __I __draw?__"_ Latios asked her.

Latias looked around. She spotted the small group of Ash's other Pokémon talking a few meters away from them. "Draw them," Latias challenged, grinning. Latios shrugged and began to psychically move the pencils across the sheet as he began to draw the first of them, Larvitar.

Ash stared at Latios as he tried to draw. "Think he'll do all right?" he asked Bianca.

Bianca shrugged. "To be honest, I'm not sure, I've never seen him draw…good luck, Latios!"

"_Thanks,__"_ Latios said telepathically, his face set in an intense stare of concentration as he tried to draw the group, his mind dead set on impressing them by making an awesome drawing.

Ash stared at the sketchbooks and turned to Bianca. "Which do you like to do more, paint or draw?" he asked curiously. He remembered that in Alto Mare she had painted a lot.

Bianca smiled. "Oh, I like lots of forms of art, and I've had practice in many of them. Personally I like canvas and paint the most, that's why I use them in Alto Mare a lot. Sadly, canvas can be quite spacious to carry and I don't want to drag them around on such a long journey, so I decided to switch to the more convenient and portable form of drawing in sketchbooks. I can carry several of them in a simple backpack, so it's not much effort."

"Oh, no wonder," Ash chuckled. He took a peek at her drawing. "Wow, it's really good…"

Bianca smiled at him, happy for the praise. "Thanks."

Just then, a tall man dressed in plain beige jeans with a marine-style shirt with horizontal white and blue lines, as well as a yellow scarf around his neck passed by. Behind him was a particularly strong-looking Machoke. "Isn't that the captain?" Ash wondered.

The guy seemed to hear him as he turned to face Ash. "Yes?" he asked.

"How long until we reach Littleroot Town?" Ash asked eagerly.

The captain smiled. "We should be reaching Hoenn in two days, a little before midday," he answered. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to finish the check-up round of the ship, I heard a report of two stowaways," he said before turning and walking away, his Machoke following him.

Ash nodded as the captain left. "Just two more days!" he said eagerly, already looking forward to the challenge ahead in the new region.

Bianca laughed. "Eager are we?"

Ash nodded happily. "Of course! I can't wait to get all my badges and finally win a league!"

Latios chuckled, pausing from his drawing. _"__That__'__s __the __spirit __Ash, __I__'__ll __do __my __best __all __the __way __to __help __you __get __there.__"_

Ash grinned. "Thanks Latios," he said, and paused. "Hey, how are the Legendary Pokémon of the Hoenn region? Are they big? Awesome? Powerful?"

Latias hummed silently. _"__Well, __there__'__s __several, __but __I __think __it__'__s __better __to __wait __for __you __to __meet __them __before __spoiling __it __for __you,__" _she said telepathically, never taking her eyes off her drawing in her losing effort to beat Bianca.

"Aww, but what if we don't come across them?" Ash whined disappointedly, eager to hear about the topic, and what new Legendary Pokémon he might get to meet.

Latias laughed, or made the motions due to her muteness. Latios joined in on the laughter. _"__Don__'__t __worry __Ash, __with __your __luck __and __how __Legendaries __are __drawn __to __you __for __one __reason __or __another, __it __shouldn__'__t __be __long __before __you __meet __them __all,__" _Latias answered, mentally giggling.

Ash chuckled. "I guess that's true…" he said, amused.

Latias nodded. _"__I__'__m __sure __there__'__s __lots __of __Pokémon __in __Hoenn __you__'__ll __like __a __lot.__"_

Ash nodded. "I wonder…what will be my future friends be, the Pokémon I'll capture…what new adventures will I have…it's so much to think of…" he muttered in a far-out tone as he thought back to his battle with Harrison, and to the Pokémon the older trainer had used, from the tricky Kecleon to the Shedinja with its impressive Wonder Guard ability, and even the mighty powerhouse Salamence. Ash wondered, just what kind of Pokémon would he catch?

"_Hopefully, __this __time __around __we__'__ll __actually __win __the __league,__"_ Latios commented, never taking his eyes off the picture he was currently drawing.

Ash nodded back at him. "Yeah, I hope so too, but with all of us working together, I'm sure we can win!" he said confidently. He turned to Latias, who was still drawing the sunset image in a failing effort to beat Bianca's drawing. "Hey, Latias, what about you?"

Latias sighed, or made the motion that she did. _"__I __don__'__t __know__…__I__'__m __not __exactly __a __fan __of __battling__…"_

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna force you to battle if you don't want to," Ash said reassuringly.

"_Though, __sis, __we__'__re __Pokémon __with __a __trainer. __Battling __is __something __we __do. __You __should __at __least __try. __After __all, __becoming __strong __will __also __be __good __self-defense __for __you, __just __in __case. __Plus, __we__'__re __Pokémon, __its __natural __to __fight,__"_ Latios told her. _"__And __it__'__ll __be __a __good __experience __for __you __to __grow __as __a __Legendary __Pokémon.__"_

Latias hummed, though it was muted. _"__I __dunno, __brother__… __it__'__s __just __not __my __cup __of __tea, __I __guess__…"_

"_I __know __Latias. __Don__'__t __worry, __no __one__'__s __pressuring __you,__"_ Latios told her reassuringly. _"__You__'__re __already __a __peaceful __Pokémon, __and __the __whole __thing __with __Annie __and __Oakley __plus __the __way __I __ended up __after __the __battle __against __Harrison __probably __dampened __your __opinion __a __lot.__"_

"_Yeah,__"_ Latias agreed. _"__Yeah, __the __way __Annie __and __Oakley __broke __our __peace__…__and __that __battle, __I __really __felt __bad __when __I __saw __that. __I __don__'__t __want __to __end __up __like __that, __or __put __someone __through __that__… __you __could __say __I__'__m __afraid __of __them __at __some __level__…"_

"_Don__'__t __worry __sis, __it __doesn__'__t __always __end __like __that. __But __you __know __you__'__ll __eventually __have __to __grow __out __of __that. __I__'__ll __always __be __there __to __protect __you, __but __I __want __to __know __you __can __also __be __safe __on __your __own,__"_ Latios said serenely, pausing his drawing to look at Latias with a tender smile. _"__Anything __can __happen. __Maybe __you __can __find __a __competition __you __actually __like?__"_

Latias nodded at him. _"__I __know __bro, __I__'__m __on __a __team __for __Pokémon __battles, __and __one __day __I __might __be __required __to __help __out.__Maybe __I__'__ll __grow __out __of __my __fear __and __dislike __of __Pokémon __battles, __but __maybe __I __won__'__t__… __just, __let __me __change __at __my __own __pace, __okay?__"_

Latios nodded_.__ "__Okay, __don__'__t __worry, __no __one __is __rushing __you. __Take __everything __at __your __own __pace,__"_ he told her. He grinned and went back to his drawing. Latias did the same, both of them nearly finishing their respective drawings.

"Done," Bianca said happily, looking over her drawing with a proud nod.

"_Done!__"_ Latias cried almost a second later, grinning at her own drawing. She inched closer to Bianca and held their images side-by-side. Ash also peeked in closer.

To Latias' dismay, Bianca's image was _way_ better. Bianca chuckled. "You still need more practice Latias," she said teasingly.

Latias grinned. _"__Oh, __one __day __I__'__ll __beat __you, __you__'__ll __see!__"_ she declared boldly.

"Don't worry Latias," Ash reassured her, peeking between both images. "I think yours looks really good too, it's good enough on its own," he said, smiling at her. Latias smiled back sweetly.

"_Done!__" _Latios said, separating the coloring pencil from his drawing. Bianca, Latias and Ash turned to look at him.

Bianca laughed. "Oh, this I gotta see."

"_Me __too,__"_ Latias agreed. _"__Turn __it __around, __bro.__"_

Latios blushed slightly in embarrassment. "Please, don't laugh…" he pleaded as he psychically turned the sheet around to show the image to them.

Latias, Bianca and Ash snorted, trying to respect Latios' wishes and hold back their laughter. Typically, they failed. The three of them burst out laughing uproariously. Though no sound came from Latias. it was clear she was in the same state as Bianca and Ash. "Pri-pri-priceless!" Bianca cried, tears building up in her eyes from the laugher.

Latios blushed a deep shade of red from embarrassment and hid his face below the deck chair. Latias' eyes glowed slightly as she snatched the sheet from Latios' mental hold into her own, taking it to rest at her hands. _"__Hey __Latios, __who __is __the __pineapple-Chikorita __hybrid __thingy __here?__"_ Latias asked curiously.

"_It__'__s __supposed __to __be __Larvitar!__"_ Latios lamented sadly, his face even more flushed.

Ash tried to hold back his laugher for a second. "If Pikachu sees the way you drew him Latios, he's gonna kill you," Ash commented. "Is that a Rattata or a Lanturn?" he asked.

Bianca blinked. "I think it's a bit of both with a mix of Raichu…or Pichu."

"_I __don__'__t __think __Pikachu__'__s __gonna __be __the __only __one!__"_ Latias added jokingly. _"__Why __does __Pidgeot __look __like __a __one-headed __Doduo __with __wings?__"_ she wondered idly. Latios just wanted to die on the spot.

"Poor Phanpy," Bianca said sadly, shaking her head. "He looks like a balloon with a trunk... is that even a trunk? Looks like a twig."

"_He __got __the __shade __of __blue __wrong,__"_ Latias noted, looking between Phanpy and the drawing.

"Latias…" Bianca began. "At this rate, the shade of blue is the _least_ of our worries…" she said, bursting out laughing again along with the female eon dragon.

"Hey! At least I tried," Latios said in frustration.

Bianca giggled, hugging Latios around his neck, Latias doing the same. "Don't worry, we still love ya," Bianca told him, trying to suppress another fit of laughter.

"_Yeah, __its __okay __brother, __you __tried __your __best,__"_ Latias consoled him. "_But __you __have __to __admit, __it__'__s __really __funny.__"_

Latios chuckled. _"__Well, __you __two __are __the __artists, __not __me.__"_

"_Yeah, __well, __then __I __guess __I __shouldn__'__t __get __you __to __try __to __draw __again, __the __results __were __kinda __fatal,__" _Latias commented. She held up her sunset drawing and grinned at it. _"__Not __as __good __as __Bianca__'__s __but __I __still __like __it.__" _She looked at the setting sun with a smile. It was almost past the horizon, and the ship's exterior lights had already been turned on.

"Well," Bianca began. "Night's starting to fall. Let's go back to the room."

"Yeah," Ash agreed, standing up and beginning to get all their things packed up to go back to their room.

Meanwhile, in one of the lifeboats nearby, the cover lifted as three binoculars showed themselves. "Twerps at twelve o' clock!" Jessie said, not taking her eyes off the group as they began to walk towards the ferry's interior cabins.

James blinked and looked up. "Really? Isn't it supposed to be at least eight by now?" he wondered idly. He cried out in pain as Jessie hit him. "Oww!"

"Not that twelve o' clock, idiot!" She said angrily and focused her binoculars on Phanpy and Larvitar. "There they are…"

Meowth shook his head. "Nah, while I'm still pretty pissed off dat dey'd dare to mess with us, dey aren't really da target here, it's Pikachu! So let's forget it."

"And the two dragons," James added.

Jessie hummed in thought. "We're currently mecha-less, so let's reduce our sights to just Pikachu for now. We can't beat Latias and Latios unless we come up with a nice mecha. And I still want revenge on those two tricksters!"

Meowth shrugged. "We weren't gonna pay for da food anyways, so why shoot smoke over dat?"

Both Jessie and James hit Meowth at the same time. "It's not that! It's the simple fact that they tricked us!" Jessie said angrily. James nodded in agreement while the Normal-type rubbed his head in pain. "Anyways," Jessie continued. "It's time to test our new toys."

"Hide!" James shouted as he ducked into the lifeboat again. Jessie and Meowth noticed two of the security officers walking nearby and quickly hid as well...

…

Several hours later, the ship was quiet as it sailed along the ocean towards its destination. Most of the crew and passengers were asleep, save for the nightshift security guards, the crew and bridge staff, the captain, and a certain group of thieves…

In one of the passenger levels, Team Rocket walked silently along the very long hallway past several cabins until they came across the one they were looking for. "So, this is the twerp's right?" Jessie asked

James nodded. "Yes, it is." He looked at the small keypad. "Meowth, do your magic."

Meowth nodded and extended his sharp nails. "Consider it done!" he said as James picked him up and lifted him to the level of the keypad. Meowth introduced the nail along the magnetic circuit and began to mess with it.

"Hurry!" Jessie hissed, pressing him on.

"Shut it! This takes patience and skill, and lots of sma-" Meowth snapped back, but was interrupted when he made a wrong motion and short-circuited the keypad, electrocuting both James and himself.

Jessie glared at them angrily and was about to yell at how stupid they were but the magical sound of the door's lock opening made her grin. She opened the door slightly and peeked in. It was a small cabin with two individual beds. On one was Bianca and on the other was Ash along with Pikachu, both of them sleeping. On the floor between the two beds, there was a big blanket where Latias and Latios were both asleep. "Quiet now…"

James nodded and took out a mechanical arm with a bright red rubber glove at the end. "Wish we had something to capture the two dragons," he said sadly, keeping his voice quiet. "Oh well…" he muttered, maneuvering the rubber arm quietly through the air, making sure not to make any noises that would wake any of the twerps up.

James snaked the arm until it was just a few inches from Pikachu. He pushed a button on the arm's controls and the hand opened up. With another command, the hand wrapped securely around Pikachu. James quickly reeled the hand back and nodded to Jessie. "Success!"

Pikachu began to wake up. When he opened his eyes he saw he was being pulled towards the exit of the room. He felt some odd pressure on his body. Looking down he noticed the gloved hand wrapped around him. "Hey! Team Rocket!" he yelled at them.

"Sorry Pika-pal, you're ours now!" Meowth told him as Team Rocket ran down the hallway, the sound of Pikachu releasing a powerful Thundershock echoing in the corridor, but thanks to the rubber glove, it would be ineffective.

Ash stirred in his sleep. He cracked open an eye and saw Pikachu disappearing out the door in a gloved red hand. That immediately woke him up even better than Pikachu's own electric attacks or Latios flipping his bed over. "Hey! Get back here!" Ash screamed, jumping out of the bed to chase after them…and tripped on Latios' wing, causing him to fall and land between the two dragons, crashing face-first into the floor. "Ouch…"

Latias and Latios too were also waking up after Pikachu's yell. They turned and saw Ash on the floor between them. Latias blinked, realizing what must have happened. "That seemed painful…are you okay, Ash?" she asked, floating up and grabbing Ash's shoulders with her claws, lifting him up gently.

"Team Rocket took Pikachu… again!" Ash told them in a worried tone. Standing up with Latias' help, he gave her a grateful pat on the head. She nodded at him.

"Oh, so that was what that noise was…" Latios muttered, flying to the door. He looked around the hallway, noting it was empty. "Damn, they're out of sight… How did they sneak in without waking us up?" he wondered.

Ash turned to Latias. "Can you try to sense their location?"

Latias shook her head. "I don't think so, there're too many minds nearby that would interfere with a psychic scan. Sorry, we aren't developed enough yet to process so much information."

Ash's eyes widened in horror. Though Latias' statement confused him a bit, he still got that she couldn't do it. "Oh no…" he muttered gravely, worry and fear tearing through him.

Latias gave him a small pat in the back. "Don't worry Ash. Remember, we're on a ship in the middle of the _ocean_, Team Rocket's got no escape route," she told him reassuringly.

"Then their plan is to either hide somewhere onboard until we reach Hoenn, or try to escape using either their Balloon or Magikarp submarine," Latios assumed.

"Their Hot Air Balloon is too slow, same for their submarine. It's not the best travel method to use for the middle of the ocean, hence why I said they had no escape route," Latias added. "They'd starve before reaching any coast."

"If that's the case, one of us should search the outside of the ship in case they do try to escape while the other searches the inside if they try to hide," Latios suggested.

"Think that they'd plan as far ahead as that?" Latias wondered. After all, they were talking about Team Rocket.

Latios shrugged. "They got Pikachu, their greatest life-goal. They had to have planned what to do after getting him."

Ash blinked. "Wow… And I would have just run out down the hallway trying to find them…" he said Mareepishly.

Latias giggled. "If you ran into them, then that way is also good."

Bianca yawned as she woke up. "What's with all the fuss…?" She said sleepily.

"Team Rocket took Pikachu…" Ash said sadly.

Bianca sighed. "The three idiots? Again?"

Ash nodded as the artist picked herself up and got dressed. "I'm afraid so…come on, let's go looking for them."

Latios looked at the doorway and rather small hallways nervously, remembering he needed to be returned to the Pokéball in order to fit. "I'll need some help getting out…"

Latias laughed. "Well, I'll turn human and search the inside of the ship for Team Rocket. You could go with Bianca to the outside. Ash could lend her your Pokéball for a bit."

Ash nodded. "Good idea," he agreed as he retrieved Latios' Pokéball from his backpack. "Latios, return!" he said as he pointed it at the blue dragon. Latios was sucked inside the sphere in a red flash. He also grabbed the Pokéballs of the rest of his team, in case they were needed.

Bianca walked up to him. "So… how can I help out?" she asked, not knowing much due to just waking up, but she understood how close Ash was to his Pokémon, so she decided to be as helpful as she could.

"_Go __to __the __outside __of __the __ship __and __release __Latios. __Make __sure __Team __Rocket __doesn__'__t __try __escaping __the __cruiser,__"_ Latias told her, repeating her earlier statement as she had made that suggestion in Poké-speech and not telepathy. Bianca nodded as Ash handed her Latios' Pokéball.

The split up, going out in search of Team Rocket.

…

"Hehehe! We finally got you Pikachu!" James giggled, stuffing his face with all the food around them, as they were in the food storage locker. Their constant running from the security guards had made them hungry again. Plus, it was free food, so there was no harm in overeating.

Pikachu sighed inside the glass container he was in. He had tried shocking his way out of it, but as usual it was electric-proof, so he just casually leaned against the glass with a calm look on his face. Meowth blinked. "Shouldn't ya look… y'know… worried?" he asked, pausing his eating to look at the container and the Pokémon inside it.

Pikachu just sat there patiently. "Not really," he answered. "It's just a matter of minutes before my friends come here and rescue me."

"Not this time!" Meowth declared boldly.

"And how do you plan to hide from two psychics again?" Pikachu asked, chuckling slightly.

"We're already hiding," Meowth answered, nodding proudly.

Pikachu sweatdropped. "Hiding in the food storage locker? How creative." He said sarcastically.

"Not dat! I mean dis!" Meowth said, running his paw over a weird black headband he was wearing. Jessie and James sported similar headbands, and the container also had one running along the base of it. "It's a Dark-type headband! It protects against Psychic attacks and sensors!" he announced. "With dese little babies your two dragons can't find us!"

Pikachu's jaw dropped. "Just where, _where_ do you get so many of these ass-pulled things? I mean, seriously _dark-typed __headbands?_! And you already have those weird mechas and inventions!" he wondered, shocked.

Meowth shrugged. "Because we're awesome like dat!" he said simply. Pikachu banged his head against the glass container.

"What's he saying Meowth?" Jessie asked curiously.

"He's saying how awesome we are because we captured him and dat he's seen dat we rule and he'll be obedient from now on, and dat his trainer's just a useless twerp," Meowth lied with a toothy grin. Pikachu glared at him and Quick Attacked the glass container, causing it to topple over and land on top of Meowth. "Ahhh! Get it off!" he yelled in pain as the container crushed him. Pikachu began to jump on top of Meowth, adding weight and force to the already heavy container until he got the message. "Okay okay! He says dat da Twerp will come soon and rescue him and dat we're busted!" he translated for real.

Pikachu nodded in approval and let the container roll off the squished Meowth. "That's more like it," Pikachu said, chuckling slightly.

"Oww…" Meowth muttered in pain. Jessie and James laughed at his misery.

"Well, while the headbands will hide us from them, what's the next plan?" Jessie asked.

"We could try to hide until we reach Hoenn," James suggested. "Or try to escape the ship."

"That's a good idea, but I don't think we can escape safely in the balloon and hiding will be hard," Jessie commented.

Pikachu's jaw dropped incredulously. "You've got me, your greatest life-goal, and you haven't even planned what to do after getting me?" he asked, stunned.

Meowth nodded embarrassedly. "Ta be honest with ya Pika-pal, we never expected to get past da security lock, or ta even pull ya out without wakin' up the dragons. We didn't feel da need ta plan much more ahead since we were already expectin' to fail," he answered. Pikachu facepalmed, his speculation of Team Rocket's stupidity skyrocketing, literally.

James shrugged, looking at the food around them. "Let's finish eating before finding a better hiding spot and start planning our next move," he suggested. The other two didn't need to hear it again before they dove back at the food. Pikachu stared at them before waiting patiently to be rescued, which he knew wouldn't take long.

…

"Where are they?" Ash said desperately, looking at an intersection of hallways, trying to pick the best choice.

"_The __ship__'__s __huge, __this __is __gonna __take __longer __than __I __thought,__"_ Latias muttered telepathically, a sad undertone in her mental voice.

"Here!" Ash said, running down the left hallway. Latias silently followed him.

Just as Ash was rounding a corner to change direction again, he crashed face-first into something very sturdy, giving a cry of pain as he fell to the floor. Whatever he had hit hadn't budged even an inch. Latias rounded the corner and stood beside Ash protectively, ready to defend him from anything that might dare try to hurt him, but relaxed, seeing Ash had crashed against the captain's Machoke.

"Oh, sorry for that," the captain apologized, extending his hand down to help Ash stand up.

"Ow… it's okay," Ash said, rubbing his nose from the impact as he got back up.

"Sorry," the Machoke apologized. "I should have watched where I was going."

"Its okay, I was the one running," Ash said, not really making a big deal out of it. The Machoke blinked in confusion. Had the kid understood him perfectly?

"May I ask what are you doing up at this hour?" the captain asked. It wasn't everyday that he came across passengers running along the hallways at this hour.

"Team Rocket broke into my cabin and stole my Pikachu!" Ash answered.

The captain blinked. "Team who?"

"They're a bunch of no good thieves who steal people's Pokémon!" Ash answered.

The captain nodded. "Then they might be the stowaways I'm looking for. I came here because several minutes ago, the ship's computer system reported a hacking attempt on a cabin security keypad without the use of the keycards given to passengers shortly after boarding."

Latias mentally hummed. _"__Ahh, __so __that__'__s __how __Team __Rocket __opened __the __door__… __and __why __the __keypad __had __smoke __coming __out __of __it.__"_

"We have to find them!" Ash pressed on.

"Come on, I'll check the computer again, if they've made another break-in, they're busted," the captain said, running to the right side of the intersection.

"Right!" Ash said as he and Latias followed him and the Machoke.

After several turns and twists, and some ladders, they arrived at a different hallway. This one had a small computer terminal on the wall. The captain pressed some keys, introducing the password and several commands. "Hmm, there's been a recent breach in the food storage locker, they must be there!"

Latias and Ash sweatdropped collectively. _"__Team __Rocket __captures __Pikachu __and __their __first __plan __is __to __go __and __eat?__" _Latias wondered incredulously.

"I think it's not that bad of a plan," Ash said, feeling a little hungry. Latias facefaulted.

The captain grabbed a small radio that was hanging from his belt. "Security team one, we've got stowaways in food storage."

"Roger," was the response. "Moving out."

The captain nodded. "There, now let's go." They all nodded and ran towards the food deposits.

"_Brother, __we __found __Team R__ocket, __they__'__re __in __the __lower __food __deposits,__"_ Latias said telepathically, speaking to Latios over their bond.

"_Oh, __and __I __was __chilling __out __here!__"_ Latios replied. _"__I__'__ll __be __going __there.__"_

"_Won__'__t __the __hallways __be __a __tight __fit __for __you? __Don__'__t __worry, __the __captain__'__s __already __called __security __and __we__'__ll __be __going __along. __It__'__s __just __the __three __idiots, __not __any __real __trouble,__" _Latias said as she followed after Ash and the ship captain.

"_Be __careful __sis,__"_ came Latios' answer, his voice slightly worried.

…

After more and more eating, Team Rocket decided to leave food storage. They slowly walked to the entrance, or in this case, exit of the food deposit area. James peeked around. "The coast is clear," he announced, picking up the container carrying a still calm Pikachu.

Meowth frowned. "Give up Pika-pal, your friends aren't comin'!"

Pikachu chuckled. "They'll come here soon, I'm just patiently waiting for them to get here and beat you three up."

"Whatever," Meowth grumbled.

They ran out into a hallway. However, when they rounded the corner, their hearts skipped a beat when they came face-to-face with half a dozen security guards. "The coast is clear huh?" Jessie asked deadpan.

James laughed Mareepishly. "They were out of my line of sight… let's go the other way!" They turned and skidded to a halt when they found the other side of the hallway was blocked by the captain, his Machoke, Ash and a human-form Latias.

Pikachu smiled. "Hey Ash! About time you came to rescue me!" Pikachu grinned and looked down at Meowth. "Told ya."

Ash smiled back at him. "Sorry buddy, finding you was harder than I thought." _'__Speaking __of __thoughts, __Latias, __use __Psychic __to __get __Pikachu __out __of __their __grasp,__'_ he thought.

Latias gave a light nod in his mind as her human-form eyes glowed subtly. _"__Alright __Ash,__"_ Latias said telepathically. A few seconds passed and to her confusion, she found out she couldn't get a firm grip on either Team Rocket or the container, they seemed to slip away from her powerful mental grip, as if she couldn't touch them_.__ "__Um, __Ash__… __I __can__'__t __do __anything__…" _she said meekly, feeling a bit embarrassed.

Ash blinked in confusion, wondering why Latias' psychic attacks weren't working... he then noticed Team Rocket's headbands. "What's up with the headbands?" he wondered. "Are you in a fighting-type Dojo now? Wouldn't that put you at a disadvantage to Latias and Latios?"

Team Rocket facefaulted. "No!" they screamed at the same time.

James grinned proudly. "These are our new Psychic-proof headbands! Good for keeping psychics away!"

Latias' jaw dropped incredulously at Team Rocket. _"__There__'__s __such __a __thing __as __psychic-proof __headbands? __No __wonder __my __psychic __powers __had __no __effect __on __them. __Where __do __they __get __this __stuff?__"_

Ash sweatdropped. "Where do you get all that stuff?" he wondered disbelievingly.

Jessie stuck out her tongue at him. "Not telling!"

"Hand over the trainer's Pokémon _now_," the captain ordered firmly.

Jessie laughed. "I don't think so!" she declared, hurling a Pokéball at their direction. "Arbok, use Poison Sting!" A bright flash of white erupted in the hallway as Arbok was released from the Pokéball. The Poison-type gave a battle cry as he opened his mouth, releasing a torrent of small glowing purple poisoned needles like a machine gun towards Ash and the captain.

The captain froze for a second, wondering how to defend from that blow as his only Pokémon, Machoke, wasn't exactly in the best of matchups. Even so, the Pokémon stepped in front of Ash, the human form Latias and his captain, ready to take the hit for them if necessary. However, Ash was ready. "Latias! Stop that with Mist Ball!" he ordered. The captain blinked, not seeing any Pokémon nearby that would follow the kid's order.

Latias stepped in front of the group (especially Ash) protectively, causing the Machoke to look at her in shock at seeing her step up to the attack so boldly. Her body suddenly glowed brightly as she reverted to her Dragon form in a beautiful shower of blue sparkles, a glowing red orb already charging in her claws. The orb expanded in size as it was coated with a flurry of wildly swirling red mist. Not a second too soon, the female Dragon quickly put the Mist Ball in the incoming trajectory of Arbok's attack, holding it in front of her claws and using it as a shield.

The Poison Sting attack collided against the Mist Ball. However, the psychic energies infused into the mist were too strong as the Poison stingers were disintegrated by the much stronger attack, coupled with the type advantage as well. The captain staggered back in surprise along with his Machoke. This was definitely new. He _never_ expected a Human to turn into a Pokémon! Or was it a Pokémon that could become human?

"I don't think so! Weezing, use Smokescreen!" James countered, hurling a Pokéball. A white flash followed as the Poison-type was released. He took a deep breath and released a cloud of dark smoke all over the hallway, causing everyone to step back, but not fast enough as the hallway was covered in thick black smoke. Everyone started coughing.

"Arbok, use Wrap!" Jessie ordered quickly. Arbok complied immediately, slithering quickly along the floor before lunging at Latias. The Cobra Pokémon wrapped his body around the distracted dragoness, coiling around her rapidly and squeezing, causing her to cry out in pain as the air was forced out of her lungs, which proved worse with all the smoke. She increased the power in her levitation greatly, barely keeping herself afloat with the snake Pokémon coiled around her.

The captain grabbed his radio. "Bridge, activate ventilation system in the food storage hallway immediately at maximum power!" he shouted into the radio. A few seconds later, the sound of the ventilation turning on was very gratifying as the smoke began to clear away.

"Arbok, use Bite!" Jessie ordered. Arbok opened his mouth, revealing two long fangs dripping with poison. He lunged at Latias' exposed neck.

"Latias, twist around to dodge that and use Ice Beam!" Ash shouted frantically. Latias quickly spun in midair while charging an orb of freezing energies in her mouth, causing Arbok's bite to miss as he overshot her and crashed face-first into the wall, sinking his fangs into it. Latias fired the Ice Beam at point-blank range, hitting Arbok in his hood and freezing him against the wall in a thick sheet of ice.

However, before the female dragon could escape the remainder of Arbok's coils, Latias saw Weezing drawing closer out the corner of her eye as the smoke was being cleared by the ship's ventilation systems. "Weezing, show her what you had for dinner!" James shouted. Weezing took a deep breath and spat a large glob of unsanitary purple sludge at the eon dragoness as he used Sludge Bomb.

"Eww!" Latias said in disgust.

"Latias, use Ice Beam to stop that!" Ash shouted. The female dragon took a deep breath and shot a freezing light blue beam, striking the sludge and freezing it in midair. She lowered her aim, making the Ice Beam hit Weezing as well, causing the Pokémon to land in front of James in a solid block of ice.

"Headbutt!" Jessie cried. Arbok, who had just recovered, twisted his long body and rammed into Latias head-first, causing great damage as Arbok's hood was still covered in ice from the Ice Beam Latias had hit him with earlier, effectively using an Ice Headbutt. The closeness of the two inside the tight hallway made it nearly impossible for Latias to react in time. She cried in pain and crashed into the wall.

"Latias!" Ash shouted in concern. "Hang on, hit Arbok with Psychic!"

Latias nodded as her eyes glowed. She lifted Arbok off the floor and hurled him at Team Rocket. "Uh-Oh…" they said, seeing the incoming Pokémon. They turned, ready to run, but froze when they remembered they had the security team behind them.

They didn't move in time as Arbok crashed into them, knocking them over and causing James to let go of the glass container Pikachu was in. It hit the floor and broke in half, the metal base separating from the glass upper part, setting the Electric-type free. Pikachu grinned and turned to them. "… Uh, can we talk dis over?" Meowth asked uneasily.

"No," Pikachu said simply. He used Thunder, shocking them for several seconds before nodding to himself in approval and running back to Ash happily, leaving a smoking Team Rocket behind.

"Pikachu!" Ash cried happily, catching the Electric-type in his arms and hugging him as Pikachu nuzzled him. Latias flew to them, smiling as well.

Pikachu grinned. "What took you so long?" he asked teasingly.

Ash chuckled. "It was a big ship, searching for you was hard." He turned to Latias and smiled. "Thanks Latias, you were amazing!" he praised her eagerly, petting her kindly.

Pikachu grinned. "So how was the battle? You make an impressive fighter. That was awesome!"

Latias rolled her eyes. "Oh don't get started on that topic again!" she exclaimed. "I battled because it was required and it was to protect you and Ash."

Pikachu laughed. "Okay, okay," he conceded, looking as the security team arrested Team Rocket. "How long do you think it'll take them to break out? They always do."

Ash shrugged. "Not very long I'd guess, they'll probably break out before even getting to Hoenn."

The captain frowned. "I think you underestimate my brig."

"I think you underestimate Team Rocket," Ash said.

The captain raised an eyebrow. "After watching you mop the floor with them, I think I've got a pretty good measure of their abilities." Ash reluctantly conceded the point. "And speaking of _your_ abilities…care to explain how your girlfriend can turn into a Pokémon?"

Ash and Latias blushed. "She's not my girlfriend!" Ash cried as Latias pouted and Pikachu snickered. "She's…um, my Pokémon, who can make herself look human…"

"Really! And how does she manage that?" the captain asked.

"Um…by…ohmigosh look over there, it's a pirate!" Ash shouted, pointing over the captain's shoulder. Neither the captain or Machoke turned to look. Ash sagged. "Was worth a try…"

"No it wasn't," Pikachu said. Ash glared at him.

"So…an explanation?" the captain asked.

"Um…I don't suppose we can talk about this tomorrow? It's kinda late, and we're all really tired," Ash said desperately.

"No," the captain said.

Ash sighed. "Okay, fine…well…it's sorta like this…"

…

After explaining the deal with Latias—or an abridged version of it—to the captain, Ash and his Pokémon were finally released to go back to their cabin, since he didn't see anything wrong with Ash and Latias's, ah, relationship, but warned the boy to try and keep it a secret, since lots of people might take it the wrong way. Ash had no idea what he was talking about. Pikachu and Latias did, and found it hilarious. Well, Pikachu did, anyway. They got back to their cabin and rendezvoused with Latios and Bianca, who were disappointed to have missed all the excitement. Ash went to sleep thinking that was all the excitement they'd have on this cruise.

He was wrong.

…

The sun shone brightly the next morning as yet another day arrived, bringing them another day closer to Hoenn. A very confused Ash was wandering about the ship. For some reason unknown to him, shortly after he had woken up, Latias and Bianca had ushered him out of their cabin and told him to see what the day was like. "Why would Bianca and Latias want to know what the day was like?" Ash mumbled in confusion. Couldn't they look out the window to figure that out?

"It's a girl thing," Pikachu answered offhandedly. "I think…"

"Let's go back to the cabin, we've already seen its sunny," Ash commented, gazing up and seeing the cloudless perfect blue sky, the sun shining brightly, causing Ash to squint his eyes.

"No!" Pikachu said immediately. "Let's hang out here a while longer," he suggested, grinning.

"Pikachu…" Ash started, an exasperated tone in his voice. "You seem to be playing along too eagerly with Latias and Bianca. What's going on?"

"Ohh nothing," Pikachu said innocently. "Don't worry… besides, look! Isn't the ocean wonderful?" he commented, jumping down from Ash's shoulder and landing the railing of the ship, looking outwards towards the sea.

"That I can agree with," Ash said, leaning on the railing beside the electric-type. Both sighed in content as they stared out to sea.

Pikachu grinned. _'__There, __this __should __keep __him __busy __for __a __little __while. __Come __on __Latias __and __Bianca, __hurry __and __get __the __cake __for __Ash__'__s __birthday, __it__'__ll __be __awesome! __I__'__m __surprised __he __hasn__'__t __remembered __his __own __birthday, __but __that__'__d __make __the __surprise __better. __Now, __to __stall __some __more__…'_ "Isn't it wonderful Ash? A new region to travel…imagine what kind of adventures await us…"

"Yeah," Ash agreed, sighing as he leaned over the railing. "It's so much to think of. That's been on my mind a lot ever since I set foot on the ship…"

Pikachu nodded. "To think… it seemed like just yesterday when we were starting out our Kanto journey, getting to Brock's Gym… Or even when we were starting out the Orange League, or maybe setting out for Johto too… So long ago, yet it seems it wasn't."

"Yeah, and soon another region's being added to the list! I wanna get to Hoenn!" Ash shouted.

Pikachu laughed. "We'll get there soon enough. Patience!"

"It's just until tomorrow. One more day…" Ash muttered, feeling more eager than ever. Both of them smiled contently, just enjoying the moment.

"_Hey, __Pikachu__…"_ the electric-type heard in his head, a telepathic sweet female voice no doubt belonging to Latias. _"__We__'__re __done. __Guide __Ash __to __the __room __now.__"_

'_We__'__re __having __a __nostalgic __moment __here, __how __am __I __supposed __to __suddenly __say__ "__Hey __Ash, __let__'__s __go __to __the __cabin__" __or __something __like __that, __or __convince __him __to __go __there?__' _Pikachu thought, knowing the dragoness would read the thoughts.

"_Improvise. __Now __I__'__ll __be __going __back __to __the __cabin __myself, __we__'__ll __keep __the __door __ajar,__"_ Latias said back telepathically.

Pikachu blinked_.__ '__You __aren__'__t __in __the __cabin?__'_

"_No, __I __had __to __get __closer __so __that __you __were __within __my __telepathic __range. __See ya __there!__" _Latias replied before going quiet.

Pikachu hummed, thinking of a surefire way to guide Ash back to the cabin without alerting him to his birthday surprise or making any awkward conversation. "Hey Ash… let's play a small game, for old times' sake."

"Hm?" Ash mumbled as he turned to the electric-type, confused. Pikachu gave him a big toothy grin before jumping off Ash's shoulder and grabbing his hat, biting the edge of it and taking it off his head. "Hey! My hat!" Ash called, grabbing his head before looking at Pikachu with an annoyed and amused, look. Ash couldn't say anything as Pikachu took off running, and just as the electric mouse had expected it, Ash came after him.

Pikachu led him around the hallways, going back to the deck where their cabin was located. Ash was hot on Pikachu's trail, not letting the Electric-type get far, not that Pikachu wanted to lose Ash, just guide him. _'__Oh, __I __can__'__t __wait __to __see __the __look __on __his __face __when __he __sees __it!__' _Pikachu thought giddily, almost losing his grip on Ash's hat from the excitement.

"Hey, give that back Pikachu!" Ash called while chasing the Pokémon throughout the halls, earning himself some odd looks from the bystanders that they passed.

Pikachu grinned when the group's cabin was in sight. He dropped the hat on purpose and kept running towards the cabin, skidding to a halt in front of the door and going inside. Ash blinked, he hadn't expected that. He stopped as he neared the dropped hat and picked it up, dusting it off a few times before putting it over his head. "I wonder what got into Pikachu now…" he mumbled, walking towards his cabin.

He opened the door, and the scene that greeted him was one he certainly did not expect. "Surprise!" Bianca, Pikachu, Latias, Latios, Pidgeot, Phanpy and Larvitar shouted at the same time as Ash entered, a dumbfounded look on his face. "Happy Birthday!" they all cried.

All of his friends were in a semi-circle around a mid-sized table with a large chocolate cake on it. Twelve yellow lit candles adorned the cake. All of his friends wore a party cone-hat of a variety of colors. "Wo-Wow…" Ash said slowly, a very surprised look on his face. He paused as a particular thought struck him. "Wait it's my birthday?" he asked, confused.

Latias laughed. _"__Yes __it __is, __though,__with __how __excited __you __are __about __the __Hoenn __trip, __I __guess __you __forgot, __but __that __made __the __surprise __all __the __better,__" _she said telepathically.

"Wow… even if I had remembered, I don't think I'd ever have expected it… especially since we just had a party at Pallet Town," Ash said, looking at the cake in surprise. It looked delicious.

"_Well, __that __party __was __to __congratulate __you __getting __third __place __in __the __Silver __Conference,__" _Latios told him. _"__Your __mom __only __said __you __could __take __it __as __an __advance __birthday __party __from __her,__but __of __course __we__'__d __give __you __the __celebration __on __the __exact __day __for __you.__"_

Ash smiled at them. "Thanks… Thanks a lot."

"Happy birthday Ash, now you're officially twelve years old!" Pikachu said, jumping on Ash's shoulder, holding a party hat in his small hands. "Ohh…do I-" Pikachu began.

"No, you aren't taking it off again," Ash told the electric-type sternly.

Pikachu shrugged. "Okay," he said. He then proceeded to strap the party hat over Ash's Pokémon League hat, giving him a very silly look that earned laughs from the group.

"Well, happy birthday, you're finally growing up!" Pikachu commented happily, hugging him.

Ash smiled and returned the hug. "Thanks a lot buddy, I appreciate the surprise."

"Happy Birthday!" Latias chimed, joining the hug.

"Yeah, happy birthday Ash," Bianca said, giving Ash a birthday hug.

"Twelve years old, nice! Happy birthday!" Latios added, also joining the hug.

"Happy birthday," Pidgeot said, giving Ash her own hug by wrapping her wings around him.

"Happy birthday daddy!" Both Phanpy and Larvitar said at the time, leaping into Ash's arms, though Larvitar had to do it with Latias' telekinetic help.

"Thanks everyone," Ash said as he hugged his two adopted sons. "Thanks a lot for this, it's so awesome…" he muttered. He looked at the cake hungrily.

"Well Ash, blow out the candles and make a wish!" Bianca told him.

"Yeah… wait, where did you get it from?" Ash wondered curiously. It's not like there was a huge cake shop in the ship or anything.

"Remember yesterday when we were going to the pool, Latias and I said we had to take care of something before changing into the swimsuits and told you we'd meet you later?" Bianca asked.

"Mm, yes, I do," Ash replied, thinking back to the moment in question.

"Well, me and Latias went to the kitchen to pre-order a cake for today. We were offered the entire birthday package actually, but I declined, seeing as our group for the party is mostly made of Pokémon," Bianca continued, explaining it for the birthday boy.

"Oh, so that's where you went," Ash said, remembering he had been curious on the matter until he forgot about it. "Well..." Ash began, taking a seat in front of the mid-size table and taking a deep breath as his friends looked on eagerly. To their surprise Ash paused. "Keep out of my thoughts!" Ash told Latias and Latios. "If you hear my wish then it's not gonna be granted!"

Latias and Latios laughed slightly. "Alright Ash, as you _wish_," Latios assured him. Not that he and Latias were planning on hearing it, even if they were kinda curious on what Ash would wish.

Ash took a deep breath and made his wish. Once he finished, he blew, successfully putting out all twelve candles. Ash grinned triumphantly.

Pikachu smirked. "So Ash, what did you wish for?" he asked curiously.

Ash stuck out his tongue. "Not telling!"

Pikachu laughed. "Alright, just checking. I hope whatever you wished for comes true."

"Thanks," Ash said, smiling.

Bianca grabbed a small bag, taking out some plastic plates, a pair of forks, and a kitchen knife. "Time to eat!" She announced, much to the group's joy.

Pikachu glanced at Larvitar. "You aren't getting seconds until we're all done with our first," he told the infant sternly.

Larvitar blinked. "Uh, why?" he asked curiously.

"Because if you eat at your rhythm, by the time we finish our first slice of cake, you would have already eaten the entire cake," Pikachu deadpanned.

Larvitar laughed Mareepishly, admitting that this was true. "Well, okay." He didn't mind, he could always steal a few bites from Pikachu's plate when he wasn't looking.

With that, Bianca sliced the cake and began to serve it to the birthday boy, then herself and finally Ash's Pokémon. They proceeded to eat their cake, enjoying it greatly on this special day. After finishing it, they proceeded to enjoy the rest of the day and play any party games that came to mind. Tomorrow they would be arriving at Hoenn, so a party would be a good way to pass the time. Once it was all over, Ash later told his friends that this had been an amazing birthday, one he wasn't going to forget for a long time.

…

Finally, the day everyone had been waiting for had come: the grand day when the S.S. Blue Star finally finished the voyage from Alto Mare to Littleroot Town. There was just a little bit of time left before the ship docked at the harbor, so many of the passengers were already gathering their things to disembark on the port. Ash was currently in the front part of the ship, along with his buddy Pikachu, the two currently invisible Eon dragons, and Bianca. Ash leaned on the railing, looking out eagerly at the distant speck of land visible on the horizon, no doubt the Hoenn region. He could barely contain the excitement he was feeling.

"We're finally here," Latias commented with a smile, turning to look at the cap-wearing Pokémon trainer. "Well, aren't you happy?" she asked softly.

"Of course I am!" Ash exclaimed, perhaps a little too loudly as it earned him a few odd stares from the other passengers. "Finally, the waiting's over!"

Latios smiled. "Yep, now you can get another shot at your dream of winning a league!"

Ash nodded happily. "Yes! Hoenn region get ready, 'cause Ash is coming to get ya! Nothing's getting in my way of winning first place at the league!" he declared boldly, pointing at the distant Hoenn League dramatically. Bianca and Latias giggled at Ash's demeanor. It was nice to see him so happy. "Oh, I wonder what the first Hoenn Pokémon I'll see will be!" Ash said giddily.

"You've seen Latias and Latios, as well as Harrison's team," Pikachu pointed out.

Ash facefaulted. "I mean, here!" Everyone shared a laugh at that.

Suddenly, a massive splash got their attention to the left side of the ship. A massive figure rose out of the water, displacing small waves in all directions. The titanic figure swam alongside the ship calmly, a long spout of water erupting from its top. It was a _very _big blue Pokémon, with two sets of fins in its midsection as well as an elevated tail fluke. "Wow… what's that?" Ash muttered quietly, awed by the sheer size of the Pokémon.

"That's a Wailord, it's a-" Latios began to tell Ash, but was promptly interrupted by a beep.

"Wailord, the Float Whale Pokémon. Wailord is the largest Pokémon yet to be discovered. It is able to jump high into the air, creating gigantic pillars of water," Ash's PokéDex said in a mechanical voice, displaying an image of a Wailord on the screen.

A vein of irritation appeared on Latios' forehead. "Hey! I was about to do that!" the psychic dragon said, crossing his clawed arms in indignation.

Ash chuckled nervously. "Sorry about that. But wow, think I could catch something like that?" Ash wondered slowly, imagining himself commanding a Wailord, and having trouble picturing the correct size of it.

"Well, I'd advise against it," Latias answered. "I don't think we have the food to feed one of them. Plus they need large bodies of water to live in, even a lake would be insufficient for them. Also, how are you going to use such a big Pokémon in a battle? I think they'd be bigger than most gym arenas…"

Ash nodded reluctantly, agreeing that she had a point. Plus, if imagining himself with one was hard, then that happening in real life was even less likely. "Yeah, I guess you're right. But really, they're so cool…" he commented, gazing as several other Wailords appeared, swimming alongside the first one to show itself. Ash looked up and saw several odd Flying-type Pokémon. They were mostly white and blue, and some had extremely large beaks, perhaps almost as big as the rest of the Pokémon itself. "Wow, what are those?"

"They're-" Latios started, but was promptly interrupted again by an all too familiar beep.

"Wingull, the Seagull Pokémon. Wingull will fly through the sky as though surfing waves. It normally carries food and other valuable items, and then hides them here and there," Ash's PokéDex said in a mechanical voice for a few seconds before going to the next entry. "Pelipper, the Water Bird Pokémon. Pelipper carries small items in their mouths over long distances and, when tired, rest floating on water."

"Hey!" Latios huffed. Latias, Pikachu and Bianca laughed at him.

Ash laughed Mareepishly, scratching the back of his head. "Sorry again, couldn't resist. I'm really used to using the PokéDex."

Latios shrugged. "Its okay, I guess."

"Then why get mad if it's okay?" Pikachu asked teasingly.

Latios blinked, not knowing how to answer that. "Er…"

Ash leaned over the railing, looking in awe at all the different Pokémon he was seeing, using his PokéDex to identify them. Some Sharpedos and Carvanhas swam around the water near the ship, some Tailows and Swellows flew about, and even Wailord's preevolution, Wailmer, appeared along the pod swimming beside the ship. Latias giggled, seeing Ash in such a hyper state, but it was understandable considering how much the prospect of a new region excited the boy, that and being surrounded by many Pokémon he was seeing for the first time in his life.

"He's more eager than I expected," Pikachu commented, a small smile tugging at his lips.

"Well, it's a new region, its understandable," Latios told him, chuckling.

"I guess so," Latias agreed.

Suddenly, the speakers that lined the ship flared to life. "Attention passengers, we have reached the Hoenn Region. Estimated time to entering the Littleroot Town harbor, twenty minutes."

"Just twenty minutes!" Ash cried happily. Bianca rolled her eyes, knowing that if she was going to travel with him, she'd had to get used to this attitude fairly quick.

Meanwhile, Team Rocket leaned casually against the side of the railing around the middle of the ship. James chuckled as he saw the land getting closer and closer. "Escaping from this brig was easy, now we'll be the first Team Rocket agents to set foot in the Hoenn Region!"

"Oh yeah!" Meowth agreed. "Da boss is gonna love it!"

Jessie sighed, leaning over the railing in a bored fashion, causing James and Meowth to stare oddly at her. "What's the point…" she mumbled sadly.

"Uh, what's up Jessie? You look a bit down…" James asked, concerned.

"Littleroot Town…" Jessie began. "The town that's never changed its colors, always stayed true to its roots…but me…us…we've changed our colors so much along the way…"

James and Meowth looked at each other in confusion. "Jessie, what Weedle stung ya?" Meowth wondered.

"Someone's philosophical today…" James mumbled, guessing that perhaps so much eating had done her bad.

"Is this everything that waits down the road for us? Following the twerp day and night trying to capture Pikachu…and recently his two Dragons as well…tell me James, have we ever truly flown at the speed of light?"

James and Meowth sweatdropped. "You're speaking hypothetically right?" James asked.

"If hypothetically dese days' means like she's goin' crazy, den yes, she is," Meowth answered.

"Agreeeeed," Woobufett said, saluting as he appeared behind the group. Jessie didn't say a thing and just returned him to his Pokéball.

Jessie signed wistfully as she leaned over the railing. James patted her on the back gently. "I know what will cheer you up, another attempt to get Pikachu, Latias and Latios, this time with a brand new mecha!" he suggested, hoping that would cheer up the seemingly depressed Jessie.

Jessie shrugged. "I guess so…I was wondering, should we change colors yet _again_?" she mumbled, the trio sighed and leaned over the railing of the ship, watching as Littleroot Town got closer and closer, pondering the same question.

As the S.S. Blue Star got closer to Hoenn, Ash's excitement went higher and higher, of what was to be expected of the all new challenge, the new adventure that had been sent in front of him, a new chance for adventure! And Ash promised silently that it was going to be his greatest yet!

* * *

><p><strong>Author Notes:<strong> And that's all for A New Chance for Adventure's first chapter! :D so what did you think?

I hope you all liked this fanfic's beginning. Now with this, the series officially kicks up! I made A New Chance at Life into a great Fanfic that was very well-liked; now, I hope that with A New Chance for Adventure, I can top it! I hope my writing's become better and that I can make this fic all the better. =)


	2. The Starting Choice

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.**

"Speech"

_'Thoughts'_

_"Telepathy" _

**Author Notes:** And here's chapter 2! :D

Enjoy!

**Chapter 2 - The Starting Choice**

* * *

><p>It was a bright and sunny day in the Hoenn region. Flocks of Taillow chirped and flew calmly through the woods. Smaller Grass-type Pokémon such as Oddish and Shroomish hid around the bushes. Bug Pokémon such as Beautifly and Dustox calmly buzzed around the flower fields and about the forest. It was, in essence, what could be called a perfect day.<p>

On a small dirt pathway between the woods, a young girl was riding a red bicycle. She was ten years old with brunette hair running on both sides of her head, a red t-shirt with a dark blue circle coloring around the neck area, a small blue skirt with dark blue shorts underneath, a yellow bag strapped to her waist, and bright red and yellow sneakers coupled with black socks. Tied around her head was a red bandanna with a Pokéball design on the front right part.

She happily hummed a song to herself as she calmly rode through the forest. Her name was May, a young girl en route to the big dream of many other youngsters, to finally receive her starter Pokémon from the local Pokémon professor, a man known as Birch. She had turned ten a few months ago, but she wasn't as eager as some other youngsters to set out on the exact day she turned ten, which was why she was only setting out on her journey now. She giggled to herself, knowing her younger brother would go the very day he turned ten, probably before the sun even rose over the horizon.

Part of her wondered just what she was getting herself into. She wasn't very knowledgeable when it came to Pokémon. In fact, she didn't even like them that much. Some even terrified her. One of her main reasons for choosing to start this journey was to have an excuse to travel and see the world. _That_ was her main motivator. She had always wanted to see new places outside of her hometown of Petalburg City, and also so Max, her young brother, finally stopped bugging her on how she should go and get her starter Pokémon, seeing as he hadn't shut up about the matter ever since her birthday. Plus, her father, the Gym Leader of her hometown, had wanted her to be a trainer as well, seeing as how he was, well, a Gym leader.

She sighed quietly to herself, thinking the matter over again carefully. How hard could being a Pokémon trainer be? Besides, she got to travel around! With a nod, she settled on keeping going. She knew she was getting close to Littleroot Town, where Professor Birch's lab was located. "I just hope I'm doing the right thing…" May told herself quietly, almost in a whisper. "It'll be all okay!" she commented, in a more loud and cheerful voice. With her father being a Gym leader, she hoped she could reach the expectations he'd have for her.

She then heard a phantom whisper beside her, and a long drawn out 'Duuuuuuskull!' which made her shiver involuntarily. She turned her head slowly and found herself face to face with a medium-sized gray ghost-like Pokémon with a _skull_ as a face, just one eye to cover _both_ eye sockets and brown bone markings across its body; in short, a very creepy and scary Pokémon.

May screamed in terror and sped up in an attempt to get away from the Ghost Pokémon. In her frenzy to get away from it, she didn't notice she had been driven off the road, and her luck ran out as she crashed into a tree head-on. "Ow… I should have… worn a helmet…" she muttered in pain as she slumped down to the ground.

The Duskull came to inspect its handiwork and laughed darkly, pleased to have frightened another human. With a final spectral laugh, it disappeared.

A few minutes later, May recomposed herself and went back to the road more carefully to finish the trip to Littleroot town. Thankfully, Littleroot wasn't that far away from Petalburg City, so it shouldn't take much longer. She sighed tiredly. "I'm not even good with Pokémon… I don't really like them… some trainer I'll be…" she muttered to herself, her tone filled with doubt and lack of self-confidence.

A few minutes later, she rounded the final hill and came to a sharp turn on the road. Straight ahead was a rocky cliff overlooking the city. "Wow! What a wonderful view!" she commented as she looked over the edge of the cliff. While called a "town", Littleroot was by no means small. The town was very picturesque, with several tall buildings and long harbors for big cruisers lined the coast. A few other buildings were a bit more inland. Green was the predominant color of the city, with numerous green areas far to the back of the city. A lighthouse was visible in the distance. May noticed a large cruiser arriving into the harbor. She stared for a few minutes at the sight of the impressive ship maneuvering to dock into the harbor before returning to her bike heading down the hill. Her next destination was Professor Birch's lab.

…

"Passengers, you may now leave the ship," the ship's speakers announced once the ship and port crews had finishing docking and boarding ramps were lowered.

"At last! We're in Hoenn!" Ash shouted happily, unable to contain his excitement one bit, causing several of the people near them to gaze at him oddly, something that he was well used to so he didn't really care. They waited a bit for the crowd to dissipate along the boarding ramp, seeing as the number of people descending was big and they didn't want to deal with the crowd.

"Finally, a new region," Pikachu agreed. He was eager to get some nice gym battles and a few new adventures, as long as they didn't include Legendary Pokémon trying to destroy everything around them, though knowing their luck, it was only a matter of time before that happened.

Ash paused and fidgeted. "Uumm… now that we're here… where to now?" he asked Mareepishly, having absolutely no clue as to what they were supposed to do once getting to the region.

Bianca facepalmed. "You're kidding right?" she asked lowly, but sadly, part of her already knew the answer to that question.

Ash scratched the back of his head nervously. "No, I'm not kidding, I really don't know, Brock was the one that usually did the planning and navigation."

The currently invisible Latios sighed. "Figures."

Pikachu laughed. "Spent the last week going on about how much you wanted to get here, and now that we're actually here you don't know where to go?" he commented, clearly holding back a laugh. "Yep, that's our Ash."

"Well… the first Gym?" Ash asked slowly.

Latias shook her head, currently disguised as Bianca. _"Well, personally, I'd suggest going to meet up with the local Pokémon Professor. I remember Professor Oak suggesting that."_

Pikachu nodded. "That, and we need to register for the league."

"Oh right, I had forgotten about that," Ash muttered, nodding in agreement.

"Damn! Where are they?" they heard a voice beside them say angrily. They turned and saw the captain, his Machoke, and several security guards.

Ash blinked. "Where are who?" he asked curiously.

The captain heard him and turned to Ah. He recognized him as the kid with the Latias. "Oh, the two guys I apprehended down at the food storeroom escaped this morning!" he said angrily.

Ash's entire group sweatdropped. "Told you you were underestimating them," Ash said sadly.

The captain paused. "Or maybe overestimated my brig? Whatever, have you seen them?"

Ash and Bianca shook their heads. "No, we haven't," they said at the same time.

The captain sighed. "Oh well, I'll just have to report this to port authority and keep inspecting the ship," he said before walking away, his Machoke and the rest of the team behind him.

"Told him they'd escape. Where do you think Team Rocket is by now?" Ash wondered out loud.

"Before the day ends, they'll attack us in a worthless robot," Latios deadpanned.

"_I second that,"_ Latias agreed bluntly.

"I third that," Pikachu said flatly. Ash chuckled at the response his Pokémon gave him.

Bianca blinked. "What did they say?" she asked curiously. All she had heard were the Latios's coos and squeals and Pikachu saying his name, so she hadn't understood even a bit. At least she knew about Latias seconding something.

Ash looked surprised for a second, but remembered that only he could understand their regular poke-speech and that Latios hadn't used telepathy. "They said that Team Rocket would probably attack us with a worthless robot sometime today."

"Ahh, they never give up do they?" Bianca wondered idly.

Ash chuckled. "No, they don't. They've chased me for the last two years, and they've always failed."

Bianca raised an eyebrow, surprised at how anyone would have the patience to chase someone for two years, even with countless failures weighing on their shoulders. She turned to look at the boarding ramp and noticed that the crowd had thinned out. "Well, let's get down," she suggested, starting to descend from the cruise liner.

They nodded and followed her quietly.

…

Elsewhere…

"Hello! Professor Birch?" May called, knocking on the door to the professor's lab several times. "Is anyone here?"

"Coming! Coming!" A voice answered as footsteps approaching the door could be heard from the other side. Seconds later, a young man with forest green hair, round glasses and a lab coat opened the door. He smiled when he saw May. "Oh, hello May, good to see you again!" Joshua, Professor Birch's assistant, said kindly, smiling warmly at her.

May nodded and smiled back. "Hi, is professor Birch here?" She asked curiously, tilting her head to the side to try and see past Joshua and into the lab.

Joshua shook his head. "No, I'm sorry, but the professor is out in the lab's green areas doing some research."

"Ah," May muttered, slightly disappointed. "Think you can give me my starter Pokémon?" she asked curiously.

Joshua shook his head. "No, the professor took the Pokéballs with him. He was supposed to leave them here, but when he set out; he forgot they were still in his handbag. He's been out for a while now so he should be back shortly."

"Okay," May said as she nodded and turned around, baffling the assistant slightly. "I'll go and look for him then. Bye!" With that said, she jumped on her bike and rode away.

"Hey, wait!" Joshua called out to the girl.

May turned to look back for a second. "Sorry, I'm not very good at waiting!" she shouted as she got farther away.

Joshua sighed. "Kids these days, they don't have even a little bit of patience!" he said, shaking his head as he watched May disappear in the distance. He turned and walked back in to the lab.

Several minutes later after asking lots of people for directions on how to get to the lab…

"Hello! Professor Birch?" Ash called, knocking on the door to the professor's lab several times. "Is anyone here?" he yelled.

"Coming!" Joshua called as he opened the door. He was greeted by the sight of a boy with a Pikachu on his shoulder and two girls, apparently twins. "Um, hello?" he asked slowly, wondering who the group was.

"Hi!" Ash greeted cheerfully. "Are you Professor Birch?" he asked.

Joshua shook his head. "No, I'm not. I'm Joshua, professor Birch's assistant. He's out doing some field research."

"Oh, I guess we'll have to wait and meet him later," Bianca muttered, shifting her gaze to Ash.

"Let's go!" Ash announced, turning around and beginning to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Joshua asked, though he already had a good guess.

"To look for Professor Birch, of course! I don't want to wait," Ash answered, causing Pikachu to chuckle at his typical impatience. Latias and Latios sweatdropped, but then shrugged and went along with their trainer. Bianca sighed, not really wanting to walk more and actually pondering the possibility of staying with the assistant, but she ultimately decided to follow Ash. Maybe she'd find something interesting to draw.

Joshua facepalmed. "Kids these days have no patience!" he commented to himself in irritation before returning the lab.

…

Meanwhile in the forest near the lab, a rather bulky bearded man wearing a lab coat, beige shorts and sandals was hidden in some bushes in the uppermost part of a hill. He had a pair of binoculars and a notebook, in which he was scribbling many things about what he saw.

He was currently doing some research about Pokémon and their relations between individuals of the same group. He was observing a pair of Mightyena and several Poochyena and noting how they behaved towards each other. He had watched different groups of Pokémon earlier, such as a flock of Tailow and a small group of Zigzagoon and Linoone. He noticed the two Mightyena just resting beside each other and watching the group of Poochyena play around. From his place in the bushes he had a good view to the clearing, though a tree near the base of it made his watching a bit harder.

He smiled and began to scribble more things into the notebook. He frowned when he noticed the two Mightyena moving a bit farther away from the clearing, along with some of the Poochyena, but still two of the canine Pokémon remained in the center of the clearing.

"No… stay closer…" he whispered to himself as he saw some of them moving away. He pondered what to do for a moment and settled for moving closer himself. He was certain the Mightyena had already smelt him from a while back since he caught them peeking over at his direction several times. Since he was often investigating and doing research around these parts, the Bite Pokémon probably recognized his smell.

He grabbed his handbag and opened it to put the notebook inside. As he did so, something caught his gaze. Moving the contents a bit, he frowned when he saw three Pokéballs inside. "What the… I was certain I left them at the lab with Joshua…oh, May! I need to get there to give her the starter Pokémon!" he said to himself. He closed the bag, stood up and decided to have one last peek at the group of wild Pokémon before heading back to the lab. He inched closer and, to his dismay, tripped on a lose root from the bush he was in and fell down, sliding down the hill while screaming.

He fell from a small drop and promptly landed on the tail of a little Poochyena that had apparently been resting there the whole time, hiding by the tree and the small drop in the hill. The small Pokémon yelped in pain, flailing around frantically for a few seconds before turning to the attacker. It growled angrily.

Professor Birch looked at the Dark type meekly. "Oh, I'm sorry little one, I slipped and fell off," he apologized, holding his arms in front of him and extending his palms to show the Pokémon he meant no harm and hoping to calm it down.

The Poochyena didn't seem to care, and howled loudly. Birch's eyes widened as two more Poochyena joined to the sides of the one he'd landed on. "Uh-oh…" he muttered. He looked at them for a second and decided to reach for his notebook to make a quick note on aggressive Pokémon behavior, and to his dismay discovered he didn't have his handbag with him. _'It must have fallen off and stayed at the top of the hill…'_ "Umm, sorry?" he tried one final time.

"Get him!" the Poochyena in the center barked, which of course the Pokémon Professor couldn't understand, but the three Dark-types lunged at him. That he could understand perfectly.

"Aaaaahhhh!" Professor Birch screamed in fright as he ran in circles around the clearing, the three Poochyena hot on his trail.

The two Mightyena came to inspect what was up and saw Professor Birch running around the tree in circles with the three Poochyena chasing him. They shrugged, agreeing it was hilarious and sat down to watch the show.

"Help me! Help me! Heeeeeelp!" Professor Birch screamed as he ran around.

Meanwhile, just a couple dozen feet away, May had been wandering around on her bike, going at a slow and sedate pace while looking around in hopes of spotting the Pokémon Professor. She suddenly heard desperate cries for help. She turned to the right and rode slowly, getting off her bike and leaning it against a tree as she walked the rest of the path.

She came to the top of a small hill. Looking down she saw Professor Birch frantically climbing a tree. She blinked in confusion. "Professor Birch, what are you doing?" she asked.

"Saving my skin!" the Professor answered back. "Oh thank goodness you're here, see that bag over there?" he asked, pointed to the discarded handbag lying on the ground nearby. May looked down the hill to where the professor was pointing and nodded. "Inside are three Pokéballs, open one of them!" he told her, holding to the branch and looking down fearfully at the three Poocheyena barking at him and clawing at the base of the tree. On the farther edge of the clearing, the two Mightyena were snickering.

May carefully walked to the bag so as to not slip like the Pokémon professor had. She took the bag and opened it, looking at all the notebooks inside and seeing three Pokéballs. "Uh, which one?" She asked, turning to look at the professor.

"Just pick one!" the professor urged her. A snap caught his attention. He turned and paled when he saw the branch he has hanging onto start to break under his weight. "Hurry!"

May hesitated, looking at the Pokéballs. "Uh, easier said than done…eh…I'll choose this one!" she said, closing her eyes and randomly grabbing one. She looked at it for as second and pressed the button in the center. The sphere opened and released a small blue amphibious Pokémon with orange cheek and head spikes and a fish tail. The Pokémon blinked and looked around.

"Oh good, a Mudkip!" Professor Birch said in relief.

"So…umm…what's next?" May asked, scratching her head Mareepishly.

Professor Birch would have facepalmed had his arms not been wrapped around the branch securely. "Just call out an attack!"

"Right!" May said enthusiastically. She turned to Mudkip. "Use…uhh…what was that attack again…"

"You don't know what attacks Mudkip has, do you?" Professor Birch asked with a frown. May shook her head meekly. "Just say: Mudkip, use Water Gun attack!" he instructed as patiently as he could. Considering he was hanging from a branch with three rather mad Poochyenas down below, that was quite the feat.

"Mudkip, use Water Gun attack!" May repeated, looking down at the small starter Water-Type.

Mudkip looked around and shrugged. It spat a stream of water at May, soaking her completely. Professor Birch sweatdropped in dismay.

It was at that precise moment that Ash and his group arrived. They came through a few bushes and saw an interesting scene. A heavyset man was up in a tree, hanging to a branch tightly with three small dog-like Pokémon clawing and scratching at the tree trunk. Two larger canine Pokémon-–probably the evolution of the small ones-were lying a bit farther away and were laughing hysterically, and on top of a hill that was about the same level in height as the tree, a small blue Pokémon was soaking a young girl with a Water Gun attack. Pikachu raised an eyebrow. "At least we aren't the only ones that do extremely strange things in public," he commented amusingly, and started laughing.

Ash looked at the Pokémon with interest. "Oh wow! What are those?" he asked excitedly. Latios didn't say anything. He knew Ash would use PokéDex, which of course he did, and besides, Latios was busy laughing at the scene.

The small machine gave a small beep. "Poochyena, the Bite Pokémon. Poochyena is the pre-evolved form of Mightyena. Its biting strength is superior to other Pokémon, and has the endurance to chase opponents down until completely exhausted," it said in a mechanical voice while displaying the image of the small Dark-types. Ash turned it to the other Pokémon. "Mightyena, the Bite Pokémon. Mightyena is the evolved form of Poochyena. They move primarily in packs, working together to capture their prey," it said in the same mechanical tone.

Latias blinked. _"Shouldn't we help?" _she asked, looking up as the man desperately tried to keep his grip at the branch.

Pikachu laughed. "Nah, this is funny."

Latios nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I find it amusing."

Latias smacked both of them psychically. _"Someone could get hurt!"_ she reprimanded.

It was at that precise moment that the branch snapped, causing Professor Birch to fall off. "Ahhh!" he screamed as he crashed to the ground. Knowing what was to come, he stood up and ran around the tree again, evading the Poochyena. "Mudkip, get down here!"

The small Water-type finally stopped soaking May and jumped off the hill, landing between the Poochyena and the Professor. "Use Water Gun!" he said firmly.

Mudkip nodded and spat a stream of water, soaking the Poochyena completely. They promptly complained that they didn't want a bath now. Smelling the new group of Humans and Pokémon that had just arrived, they decided to run back to the two Mightyena. The five Pokémon ran deeper into the forest, disappearing from sight.

"Hey!" May cried indignantly. "Why did Mudkip only soak me?"

Professor Birch shrugged. "I don't know." May crossed her arms angrily, grabbed Birch's handbag and began to walk up the hill to get her bike.

Ash looked at the Mudkip. "Oh wow, cool!" he exclaimed, pointing his PokéDex at it.

"Mudkip, the Mud Fish Pokémon. Mudkip uses the sensitive radar receptors on its headfin to determine what's going on around it. In a pinch, it can gather enough power to crush rocks," the machine said in a monotone voice.

Professor Birch turned to the new group, only noticing them just then. "Oh, hello!" he greeted them, dusting himself off.

"Hi," Bianca replied. The human form Latias gave a curt nod. Bianca looked at the small Mudkip with interest. She crouched down and smiled at it. Mudkip just looked at her curiously. Bianca grabbed a small sketchbook and began to draw the small Pokémon. Mudkip, having nothing to do at the moment, just kept staring at Bianca obliviously.

"Hello, are you professor Birch?" Ash asked curiously, stepping forward until he was in front of the man.

The Professor nodded. "Indeed I am. And you're Ash Ketchum, correct?" he asked, though his tone made it seem more like a statement than a question.

Ash blinked. "Uh, how did you know?"

"Because I saw you in the Silver Conference. You eliminated _my _main prospect for it, Harrison," Birch answered, hiding a sad undertone at Harrison's defeat.

Ash chuckled nervously. "Uh, sorry?" he said, not sure how to reply to that.

The Pokémon professor laughed. "Oh don't worry, there's no need to be sorry. The best won and that's that. Though, Professor Elm just won't _shut up_ on how much he's been bragging that it was his trainer that won the Silver League," Birch lamented. Ash laughed.

"Figured he'd do that," Pikachu muttered. "Considering how happy he was that that Jon Dickson guy won…"

"Really?" Ash asked.

"I know Professor Oak would be bragging if you won the league to the other professors," Pikachu answered offhandedly.

"I don't think so, Professor Oak doesn't seem to be that kind of guy…maybe," Ash said uneasily, pondering the same thing more intently.

Pikachu laughed. "He would, I just know it."

Ash shrugged. "Well, regardless, its Professor Elm's who's got bragging rights anyway."

Pikachu paused for a second and nodded in agreement. "True."

"So," Professor Birch began to get their attention, looking at the exchange between Ash and his Pikachu with utmost interest, especially that Ash seemed to understand the electric-type completely. "You seem to understand your Pokémon perfectly. That's amazing! It's just like Professor Oak said!"

Ash huffed and glared at Birch. "Just how much has he been rambling about me?"

Professor Birch blinked, noticing Ash's reddish eyes. Those were certainly odd. "Umm, well, it's just that a human that can understand Pokémon to the intimate degree that you can is very rare. It's very exciting for us Pokémon researchers…" he explained.

Ash sighed, agreeing that he had a point. "I guess so."

"Can you understand any Pokémon, or just those close to you?" Birch asked curiously.

"Any Pokémon so far," Ash answered.

Professor Birch reached for his handbag to take some notes, but frowned when he remembered May had it. "Do you mind if I ask you some questions?" Professor Birch asked curiously.

Ash sighed. "You're not going to turn me into some kind of experiment, are you?" he asked, rolling his eyes. Pikachu glared at Birch, clearly voicing that he better not try it unless he wanted to try his best shocks.

Professor Birch laughed. "Oh no, it's just that I'm curious. Oak was right, you're a very interesting kid."

'_Uh, Latias? He's good right?'_ Ash thought, just wanting to be on the safe side.

Latias closed her eyes for a second, allowing her empathic abilities to spread out. While she didn't read Birch's thoughts or mind, she felt the natural emotions coming off from him. _"He's good Ash. He's got no bad intentions, its genuine curiosity," _the female eon Dragon answered.

"When a Pokémon talks, what do you hear?" the Professor asked curiously.

Ash chuckled. "The same thing you hear, the Pokémon's natural poke-speech. However, as they say it, I somehow…hear or make out actual words and sentences within their speech patterns… it's the best explanation I can give you…I don't know how to put it, exactly."

"Fascinating..." Professor Birch muttered to himself. "How much do you talk to your Pokémon, or they talk to you? Do you maintain frequent talks with them?"

Ash sighed. "You have _no idea_. Sometimes my problem's actually getting them to shut up."

Pikachu laughed. "Aw, I love you too, Ash," he shot back with an amusing grin. Ash rolled his eyes and gave the electric Pokémon a pet on the head.

Professor Birch stared at them for a second. "Odd…but interesting."

"Back!" May exclaimed, riding back to the clearing on her bike.

Ash turned to look at her and facepalmed when he saw her. He glared to Pikachu. "I forbid you from frying her bike," he said sternly.

Pikachu blinked, taken off-guard by the comment. "Wait, what?" he asked, confused. He paused for a few seconds, recalling what Ash was hinting at. "Oh right, Misty's bike."

Ash nodded. "I don't want another bike on my debt list."

Pikachu laughed and looked away innocently. "Okay, okay, but the last one was repaired eventually, wasn't it?"

"Yes it was, but I don't want to go through the same thing again!" Ash shot back, glaring. Pikachu laughed.

May stopped beside Professor Birch and handed him his bag. "Here's your bag back."

Professor Birch smiled. "Thanks, May."

Ash grinned. "Hello! My name's Ash!" he introduced himself in a very cheerful tone.

May turned to look at him, smiling back. "Hiya, I'm May."

Pikachu tapped Ash once, an annoyed look on his face. Ash chuckled. "Oh, and this is my buddy Pikachu," he said, introducing the electric-type. Pikachu nodded in satisfaction. Latios gave a silent chuckle. "So, are you a trainer?" Ash asked curiously.

May shook her head. "Not yet, I came here to get my starter," she answered.

Ash grinned. "Oh, that's really nice, congratulations!" he beamed, this particular moment bringing back many memories.

Professor Birch grabbed Mudkip's Pokéball and, seeing that Bianca had already finished her rough sketch, returned the small Mud Fish Pokémon back to the sphere. "May, Ash is a more experienced trainer, having already participated in two leagues. You could learn a thing or two from him," the professor suggested.

"Three, actually," Ash corrected. "The Orange league counts too. Even if it was shorter, I still had to beat a really tough Dragonite to win it."

Professor Birch nodded. "Alright, my bad. Three, then."

"Wow," May said slowly, imagining all the places Ash must have seen in his travels.

"So, what were you doing in that tree?" Bianca asked curiously. "And why were the Poochyena chasing you?"

Professor Birch scratched his head Mareepishly. "I was doing some field research on them, and I slipped down that hill and fell, accidentally scaring one of the Poochyena… they didn't take it well," he explained.

Ash laughed. "Oh, no wonder!"

"So Ash, how's Latios?" Birch asked curiously. That had been bugging his mind for a while, especially since Latios hadn't fought in the semi-finals. He figured the Dragon was fine by now, but he just wanted to be sure, plus it was a very nice excuse to bring the Eon dragon topic up and maybe convince Ash to show him off. "I figure he's recovered from the harsh battle with Harrison's Salamence?"

Ash chuckled, guessing that Professor Birch just wanted an excuse to see Latios. He didn't really mind. "Ask him yourself."

Professor Birch looked around for a second, remembering Latios could render himself completely invisible and could be anywhere around without him noticing. "He's out here?" he asked, just to be certain.

"Yep," Ash answered. "He's behind you. Come on Latios, no need to hide. Drop the cloak."

Professor Birch, and May, who was curious as to what all the fuss was about, turned as Latios dropped his invisibility, appearing in a shower of bright blue sparkles. Birch jumped back in surprise at having the rather large dragon appear suddenly in front of him. May didn't do so well, either. "Aaaahhhhh!" she screamed in fright, jumping and hiding behind Birch frantically. She didn't even know Pokémon could turn invisible like that. Latios snorted and barely contained his laugher. Pikachu didn't even bother trying. Bianca and Ash sweatdropped.

"Oh, he looks more amazing in person than on television…" Birch commented, looking at Latios intently and making the dragon feel slightly uncomfortable. He raised his hand to reach and pet Latios, but figured he'd better ask first. "Uh, can I touch you?"

Latios shook his head and flew back a couple of inches. Ash laughed. "Don't worry, he's not the most enthusiastic about people he meets for the first time. It takes a while for him to warm up to someone."

Professor Birch lowered his hand in disappointment, but he had half-expected that. "Oh, all right," he said. He turned to look behind him. "Come on May, its okay. Latios is Ash's Pokémon."

May timidly came out. "Sorry, it's just… uhh, I never knew a Pokémon as big as him could hide like that…" she said, laughing nervously. At least he wasn't as mean as the Duskull she had met earlier. Plus, Birch said the large blue Pokémon belonged to Ash, so it was all cool, right?

Professor Birch smiled. "I must admit, meeting a Legendary in person is amazing."

"Thanks for the compliment," Latios said, looking back warily, though he was more relaxed.

Professor Birch blinked. "Uh, what did he say?"

Ash smiled. "He says 'thanks for the compliment.'"

"Ah," Birch murmured. "I must admit, understanding Pokémon is a very useful ability."

May blinked, just catching up. "Wow, you can speak Pokémon?"

Ash laughed and nodded. "Well, I can't speak it, but I can understand it."

Professor Birch turned to May. "Let's go back to the lab to give you your starter Pokémon, your Pokéballs, and your PokéDex, May," he said, turning to the direction his lab was in and starting to walk down the path. Everyone nodded and followed him.

Once they had exited the clearing the professor had been doing his research in, the ground before Ash trembled slightly as he heard the sound of a twig snapping. "Huh?" he muttered, looking down.

"What is it Ash?" Professor Birch asked, walking forward…and the ground gave away, causing them to fall into a pitfall trap.

"Aaaaahhhh!" they screamed as they fell inside and landed painfully.

Latios looked down, a surprised look on his face. "What the-" Latios began, but he was cut off when a net fell on top of him. He sighed in exasperation, already knowing what was going on.

A ridiculous looking giant robot Pikachu appeared out of hiding from behind a group of trees. The top hatch opened as Team Rocket appeared from within, still wearing their special Dark headbands. "Prepare for trouble, we're back to holes!" Jessie began, a grin on her face

"And make it double, we're digging 'em like moles!" James continued, chucking evilly.

"To protect the world from a painful fall!" Jessie followed, spreading her arms.

"To unite all nations within Team Rocket, both big and small!" James added, mimicking Jessie.

"To denounce the evils of truth, love and dirt mounds!" Jessie said.

"To extend our reach to the great undergrounds!" James said.

"Jessie!" she introduced herself loudly.

"James!" he introduced himself just as loudly.

"Team Rocket blast off at the speed of-" Jessie began, but was promptly interrupted.

"Hey! What's going on!" Professor Birch wondered, supporting himself on his arms over the edge of the pitfall.

Team Rocket blew up in rage. "Don't you _dare_ interrupt the motto!" James screamed angrily.

"The motto's sacred, so shut up and let us finish!" Jessie screeched angrily. Professor Birch blinked in confusion, wondering who the two clowns were.

"Now where was I… oh yeah, Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light!" Jessie said, doing a dramatic pose.

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!" James finished, doing a dramatic pose as well.

"Meowth! That's right!" Meowth said, doing a similar pose in front of them.

"Oh _WOW_! A Pokémon that talks like a human?" Professor Birch exclaimed in surprise. "This day just keeps getting better and better!"

"Team Rocket! Not you three again!" Ash yelled angrily, pulling himself out of the hole as well. "What the heck is with the hole?"

Jessie shrugged. "It's been a while since we used a pitfall, we felt like trying it again," she answered. She took a remote control and pressed a switch. A hatch opened in the side of the Pikachu-bot, revealing a small gun that fired a Thundershock, causing Birch and Ash to fall back into the hole.

Ash growled in anger. "Team Rocket, you do realize two of my main Pokémon aren't really harmed by a pitfall, right?"

"Eh?" Jessie asked, wondering what he meant.

"Latias, get us out please?" Ash asked kindly. Latias nodded as her human-form eyes glowed, levitating herself and the three humans out of the hole gently.

"He-hey, what's going on?" May asked uneasily, seeing herself apparently flying out of the hole, a faint blue outline around her.

Professor Birch noticed that one of the two apparent twin's eyes was glowing. Knowing from Oak that Ash had also a Latias in his possession, he deduced that the girl was actually the Latias in disguise. "Relax, May," he said gently, turning to look at May.

Team Rocket facepalmed. "Oh crud, we forgot they could do that…" James lamented as Latias set Ash, Pikachu, Birch and May safely beside the pitfall trap. May immediately got behind Birch, eying the really weird girl that had just gotten them out of the hole warily. That did it, this kid's group was _weird_, just how did that girl do that?

"You mean we dug that hole for nothing? I got all dirty in vain!" Jessie screeched in anger.

Meowth sighed in frustration. "Holes aren't as useful as dey were back in Kanto…"

Latios laughed. "Meowth, do you really think a net is going to hold me down?" he asked, grinning at the feline Pokémon.

"Ha! It's Electricity-proof!" Meowth said, grinning back at him confidently.

Latios rolled his eyes. "I'm not an Electric-type." With a thought he ripped the net apart.

James made a face. "Nets aren't as useful as they were in the past, either. Thankfully, mechas still come in handy!" he said as the trio retreated back into their robot.

"Guess I was right about the robot thing," Latios muttered.

"You were right about their persistence, Ash," Bianca commented. "I just wonder, where did they get that robot from?"

Ash shrugged. "Beats me, we've never figured out where they get so many mechas from."

"And you never will!" Jessie bellowed, commanding the Pika-bot to fire another net at Latios.

Latios mentally tore it apart again. "That's the best you can do?" he asked, unimpressed.

"Oh hell no!" James shouted, activating a switch. Two electrical spheres within the cheeks of the Pika-bot activated as they started sparkling ominously, releasing a tremendous electrical shockwave blast in all directions.

"You just had to ask!" Pikachu said angrily, glaring at Latios.

"How was I supposed to know?" Latios snapped back.

"Latios, Latias stop that with Luster Purge and Mist Ball!" Ash shouted. Latias reverted to her Pokémon form, not really surprising Birch (who was busy taking notes, seeing Latias and Latios about to enter a fight), but causing May to scream in fright and surprise again. Latias would have apologized for it, but she had no time at the moment.

"Right!" they said as both Eon siblings started glowing as they charged their psychic powers. Latios fired a large sphere of white psychic energy while Latias hurled a swirling orb of reddish mist. As they launched the attacks, Ash grabbed a single Pokéball.

"Phanpy, Go!" Ash shouted, releasing the small hyperactive Pokémon. "Use Rollout!" he ordered. Phanpy nodded immediately, curling into a tight ball and rolling towards the Pika-bot.

Latias and Latios' attacks collided against the incoming shockwave, locking into a stalemate with it, effectively stopping it in its tracks. This allowed Phanpy, whose Ground-typing negated the electricity, to safely pass through it and towards the robot.

"Incoming!" Meowth said in alarm. They had no time or cheap tricks to defend against Phanpy's attack. He collided with the Pika-bot at full force, causing the robot to stumble back slightly and make the circuits powering the shockwave attack spheres to falter, allowing the eon duo's attacks to overpower the attack and dispel it into nothingness. "Get a taste of this!" Meowth said angrily, switching to a different weapon. This time, a big generator on the Pika-bot's back activated, shooting a Thunder skywards, which arched down towards Latios and Latias.

"Stop that with Dragonbreath!" Ash ordered. Both Eon siblings took a deep breath and exhaled plumes of green fire towards the incoming Thunder Attack, creating a midair explosion.

"Oh, no you don't!" Jessie said as she elevated the power feed on the generator.

"Oh, no _you _don't!" Ash countered. "Phanpy, use Hidden Power on that thing!"

"Yes Daddy!" Phanpy chorused as he glowed, several spheres of white energy forming around him. He shot them at the Pika-bot's back, shattering the generator and shaking up the robot.

"Dammit! We forgot about the runt behind us!" Meowth cursed.

James shook his head. "No! Keep concentrated on Latios and Latias!" he suggested, pressing a switch as the Pika-bot's arm began to open, revealing a bazooka and aiming it at Latios.

"Latios, use Steel Wing on that weapon! Phanpy, use Earthquake!" Ash shouted. Latios quickly sped forward with the great speed his species were known for as Phanpy rose on his hind legs, just a few meters in back of the cheap robot.

"Hey! What about us!" Latias and Pikachu demanded angrily at the same time.

Ash paused. Another hatch in the Pika-bot's other arm opened, revealing a net launcher, giving him the perfect excuse to have them do something. "Pikachu, use Iron Tail to destroy that other weapon. Latias use Ice beam on the windshield to blind them!"

Both Pokémon nodded as Pikachu shot forward with Quick Attack, trying to catch up to the much, much faster Latios, and failing. Latias took a deep breath, charging a sphere of freezing energies in her mouth which was getting bigger by the second. Team Rocket looked at the multiple attackers, wondering what to do. "What do we do?" James asked, shifting his gaze between them.

Jessie growled. "Just fire everything we have!" she screamed. She pressed all the attack switches at once. Sadly, they weren't fast enough.

Phanpy released the Earthquake first, causing a tremor to run across the road and shaking the Pika-bot up. The vibrations caused the electric generators in the cheek to spark and malfunction, making the robot unable to fire another electrical shockwave.

Latios was next. He flew at an extremely fast speed, his aerodynamic body allowing him to move so fast that he reached the arm with the bazooka before it had a chance to fire. He passed beside it, his steel-hard wing slashing across the arm of the robot, ripping the bazooka to pieces and slicing open the arm. Latios grinned at the damage he had managed to do.

Latias' beam managed to get to the robot before the slower Pikachu, hitting the cockpit's glass and covering it with a sheet of ice, rendering Team Rocket blind of what was going on outside. This made their aim with their net launcher fail. As it fired, Pikachu somersaulted over the projectile acrobatically as his tail shined brightly, leaping over the tip of the arm and slashing the shoulder as hard as he could, severing the arm. "Heh, this thing is made of tin foil!" he cheered victoriously as he landed behind the robot, the arm hitting the floor harshly and lying motionless. Pikachu grinned at Latios. "Ha! I did more damage than you!" he taunted.

Latios fumed. "I attacked before the arm managed to even fire at me!" he countered.

Pikachu laughed at him. "But there's still an arm left on your side! I _severed_ the one on my side, so I'm better!" Latios crossed his arms and looked away. Pikachu laughed harder. Latias, Ash and Phanpy looked at them with a blank expression on their faces.

Ash grinned as the Pika-bot flailed aimlessly. "Pikachu, finish that thing with Thunder!"

Pikachu nodded and jumped towards the Pika-bot, heading to the stump of the arm he'd ripped off. "Take… this!" he bellowed, releasing a massive Thunder into the open joint and inside the machine, causing all the circuits to crash and everything to overload from Pikachu's power, electrocuting team Rocket as well. The combination of power from the machine and Pikachu's electricity caused many strays bolts to be fired in many directions. To Pikachu's horror, one of the bolts was heading towards May's bike, which had been discarded to the side when they had fallen in the pit trap. "Noooo! Stop that bolt!" he cried in horror.

"My bike!" May cried worriedly.

To everyone's relief, the bolt seemed to bounce off a transparent screen, courtesy of Latias' psychic powers. May sighed in relief and looked at the red dragoness gratefully. "You owe me one Pikachu!" Latias told him, grinning. "You bike destroyer!"

"Alright, thanks!" Pikachu called back as he jumped backwards. The robot exploded spectacularly, sending Team Rocket blasting off, as usual.

"Dammit! Why can't we pull off the kidnapping successfully!" James wondered angrily. "We got beaten senseless like all the other times!"

"No! Why can't we do anything right!" Jessie wailed in despair, a depressed tone in her voice. "We're useless…" she whispered to herself.

Meowth sighed. "At least we figured out holes aren't very useful these days…" he said, trying to find something positive in it. James smacked him.

"Team Rocket's blasting off again!" they cried as they vanished into the distance.

Seeing that everything was over, professor Birch walked over to Ash. He was still holding his notebook, taking lots of notes. "Hey, who were those three?"

Ash sighed. "Just a trio of thieves that have been trying to steal my Pokémon. They always fail."

"Ah," Professor Birch muttered in understanding.

"Their persistence is admirable," Bianca commented. "Their goals, not so much."

Latias, Latios, Pikachu and Phanpy came over. Ash turned to them. "Thanks all of you, you were great!" he praised them.

Phanpy jumped into Ash's arms. "You're welcome Daddy!" he said cheerfully, nuzzling Ash. Ash smiled and petted Phanpy, before returning him to his Pokéball.

Professor Birch looked at Latias and Latios and took some notes. "Wow, you two are amazing!"

Latias smiled. "Thanks!" she said, feeling joyous at the praise. Latios just gave a curt nod.

Professor Birch looked at them. "Uh, what did she say?"

Ash chuckled. "She says thanks."

May looked between Latias and Bianca a few times. "How is it that she…looked like you?" she asked curiously.

Bianca smiled. "That's one of Latias' special abilities. She can assume human form. Since we've known each other for a long time, she likes to copy me."

"Wow… that's impressive," May commented, feeling genuinely interested in Latias now that she knew that the red Pokémon wouldn't try to scare her.

"Well, now that this little…interruption is over, let's head back to my lab," Professor Birch suggested, beginning to walk again.

"Sure," Ash said, walking after him. Bianca followed.

Latias glowed as she reverted back to her Bianca form, causing both Birch and May to stare at her in surprise. She noticed their stares and winked at them before catching up with Bianca. "She's one interesting Pokémon…" Professor Birch muttered quietly, taking some more notes in his notebook.

"_Tell him I heard that,"_ Latias told Ash telepathically. _"And that I said thanks, again."_

Ash chuckled. "Latias says she heard that, and thanks," he repeated. Professor Birch laughed in amusement. Interesting Pokémon indeed.

…

The walk back to the lab was very uneventful with Team Rocket blasted off, as usual. Once they got to the lab and were greeted by Joshua, the time had finally come for May to choose her starter Pokémon.

Professor Birch smiled and laid out three Pokéballs on the table. "In here are the three starter Pokémon of the Hoenn region. You may pick the one you like the most, or the type you think will favor you the most."

May nodded. "Alright."

Ash grinned. "I remember this moment, when I got my own first Pokémon…it was magical…"

Professor Birch turned to look at him. "Really? Who was your starter?"

"Pikachu," Ash answered, rubbing Pikachu's chin. The electric-type smiled in contentment.

Professor Birch looked at him oddly. "He's not one of Kanto's starters. How did that happen?" he asked curiously.

"I was late for the starter giveaway from Professor Oak, so all the other three starters had already been chosen and the only suitable Pokémon left was Pikachu," Ash answered. "I don't regret sleeping in on that day a single bit. In fact, I'm_ glad_ I slept in, right buddy?" he continued, petting the Electric-type. Pikachu nodded in agreement while smiling at Ash warmly, touched. Latias and Latios 'awww'd.'

"Now that's an interesting story," Professor Birch commented. He grabbed a Pokéball and released the first of the three Pokémon, the same Mudkip from earlier. "This is Mudkip May, a Water-type, as you already know."

May looked at it, uninterested. "That thing just soaked me up!" She said, irritated. Mudkip just tilted its head to the side. "It hates me!"

Ash leaned down to be level with the water-type. "Hi there," he said to the Mudkip.

The Mudkip looked at him uneasily, not sure how to react to the very weird Human. "Uh, hello?"

Professor Birch laughed and grabbed another Pokéball. "And this is the Grass-Type starter, Treecko." He opened the Pokéball, releasing a bipedal green gecko like Pokémon with round yellow eyes.

"Wow, cool!" Ash commented, shifting his attention from Mudkip to Treecko.

Professor Birch looked at Ash with amusement. "You're very good with Pokémon, Ash," he said, smiling at the young boy. Ash kept his attention on the Treecko.

May stared at it for several seconds. The Treecko stared back. May took a few steps backwards. "Its creepy…" she muttered, feeling uneasy and breaking eye contact with the Treecko.

Ash chuckled. "Nah, I think he's a cool little fellow."

"And finally, the Fire-Type Torchic," Birch announced, releasing the final Pokémon. It was a small orange chick Pokémon, with three yellow feathers standing out from its forehead.

"This is the one you said evolved into Blaziken during my battle with Harrison, right Latias?"Ash asked, turning to look at the disguised dragon girl.

She nodded. _"Yep, this little guy evolves all the way into Blaziken."_

Ash stared at the Torchic. "I think he's cute," he commented. Latias giggled in agreement.

"So May, who do you chose?" Professor Birch asked, taking several steps back. He motioned to Ash and Bianca. They got the message and stepped back too, leaving all three starters in the center of the room with May in front of them.

May stared at all three Pokémon lined up on the floor intently, shifting her gaze between them constantly. "Uhh… I don't know…" she muttered and turned to Ash, who was a more experienced trainer. "Hey… who would you pick?" she asked curiously.

"Well," Ash began, looking at the three starters. "I'd pi-" he said, but was interrupted.

"No Ash, let her make the choice on her own, your suggestion might bias her final pick," Professor Birch said sternly.

Ash scratched his head Mareepishly. "Sorry."

"_So, who _would_ you pick?"_ Latios asked telepathically so May wouldn't hear them, wanting to know the answer to that question.

'_Treecko,'_ Ash answered. _'He looks really cool.'_

Latios chuckled, nodding in agreement. _"That he does. If I was a trainer, I'd pick Treecko too."_

Latias hummed. _"I'd pick Mudkip, he's adorable!"_

Latios shrugged. _"We all know Treecko's better."_

Latias glared at him. _"Mudkip!"_

"_Treecko!"_ Latios shot back, grinning.

"_Mudkip!"_ Latias snapped, smirking.

"_Treecko!"_

"_Mudkip!"_

"_Treecko!"_

"_Mu-"_

"I pick Torchic!" May exclaimed, finally making her choice as she crouched down to look at the small chick Pokémon. He began hopping up and down, and then he got closer to May and nuzzled her leg. "Aww, he's cute!" Both Eon twins facepalmed. Pikachu snickered at them.

Professor Birch nodded. "Good choice, May. Don't forget to pick up your Pokéballs and PokéDex," he told her. She nodded.

She signed and looked down at Torchic, wondering what she had just gotten herself into. Now she had to carry a Pokémon around… She walked to the table and took the Pokéballs and PokéDex, putting them away in her bag.

"I know you'll become a great trainer May," Professor Birch said, smiling gently.

May signed. "I hope so too…"

Professor Birch frowned. "May, is something wrong?" he asked. Normally whenever someone got their starter they were leaping for joy.

May put on a fake-cheerful smile. "Oh don't worry Professor, I'm okay."

Ash frowned. _'Hey Latias, what's wrong?'_ he asked her curiously, wondering the same thing as Professor Birch.

"_From what I can sense coming off her emotions, she's feeling very nervous and uncertain about becoming a Pokémon trainer. Remember how scared she was at the sight of me or my brother, or some other Pokémon? That's because she's afraid of Pokémon and perhaps dislikes them. She's very confused about her current status as a Pokémon trainer,"_ Latias explained, using her empathic abilities to read the emotions coming off the young girl.

'_Oh. Think I could help her like Pokémon? I really like them,'_ Ash asked the dragoness.

"_I'd advise against it. If you put pressure on the subject for her she's just going to snap. Let things follows their course, Ash,"_ Latias answered as she watched May look down at Torchic, who just stared back while tilting his head.

'_Why does she feel like that?'_ Ash asked.

"_I don't know, I'd have to actually look into her mind to find out, but that'd be rude. I'll respect her personal mind space,"_ Latias replied. _"Don't worry Ash, its all fine. Let May be."_

Ash nodded, trusting Latias' words. He turned to Professor Birch. "Hey Professor, where's the Littleroot Town Pokémon Center? I'd like to register for the Hoenn League."

"I'm sorry Ash, there's no Pokémon Center here in Littleroot, you'll have to go to another city for that," the professor answered.

"And where would that be?" Ash asked.

"Well," Professor Birch began, thinking for a second. "The nearest Pokémon center is in Oldale Town, and after that is the Petalburg City Pokémon Center. Oldale's on the same route as Petalburg, about halfway between here and there. Both places are close to here," he explained.

Ash nodded. "All right."

"So, where to next?" Bianca asked, gazing at Ash.

Ash turned to Professor Birch. "Is there a Gym in Oldale town or Petalburg city?" he asked.

"There's a Gym in Petalburg city, but there's none in Oldale," Birch answered. "You'll pass Oldale Town en route to Petalburg, so you can register there."

Ash nodded. "Then we'll go to Petalburg. Oldale's on the way there, so it should be quick."

Latios laughed. "Assuming we don't get lost."

Ash smirked proudly. "My navigation skills have improved a lot, I'm sure we won't lost," he said confidently. Latias, Pikachu, Latios and Bianca didn't believe him one bit. Ash didn't believe his own words, either. Ash sulked. "Why do I even bother…" he said when he noticed all his friends staring at him oddly.

Latios sighed. "I _really_ hope that the road to Petalburg city is a straight line."

Pikachu shook his head. "We've gotten lost on straight lines before," he said warily. Latios stared at them incredulously.

"Well professor, it was good meeting you. I guess we're going to go to now," Ash said, holding his hand out.

"It was a pleasure meeting you Ash, good luck on the Hoenn League," Professor Birch said, shaking his hand.

Ash nodded. "Thanks a lot. Time to start gathering badges!"

Bianca smiled. "And this time I hope you do win the league."

Ash grinned confidently. "Oh I know I'll win!"

"No you won't," Pikachu said.

"Be quiet, Pikachu," Ash growled.

"That's a good goal, Ash," Professor Birch noted.

"Yeah, thanks," Ash said. "Well, time to get going!"

Ash and his group said their final goodbyes. Ash and Bianca, along with their Pokémon companions prepared to leave for Oldale Town and Petalburg City.

"Hey wait!" May called out, catching up to the group a few feet away from the lab. Ash and Bianca turned around.

"Yes?" Ash asked. Had she forgotten something?

"H-hey," she stuttered for a bit, wondering how to put what she was about to say into words. "I was wondering if I could go with you two," she told them. "It's just that… I have no clue what to do next…" she said, scratching her head Mareepishly.

Ash tilted his head slightly in confusion. "What do you mean?"

May blushed in embarrassment. "Well uh… yes, I got Torchic, but I have no idea what to do now… how to care for it, or… uh, how to catch other Pokémon or just what to do next. I was wondering if I could tag along for now? Even if just until Petalburg, so you can help me get started. I won't be a burden, I promise," she explained, silently wishing that Ash would say yes. That would be a big help for her.

To May's delight, Ash smiled. "Of course you can come, May."

May grinned. "Thanks! Oh, and I'm from Petalburg city, so I know my way there in case you need guidance."

"That's great!" Ash commented, relieved that they wouldn't have to deal with getting lost now. "You're welcome to join us!"

May nodded. "Thanks, just let me go and get my bike," she said, turning around and running back to the lab.

"At least we've got a guide…" Bianca commented. "Now we won't get lost!"

Ash sulked, muttering sadly about his horrible navigating skills. Pikachu, Latios and Latias laughed, nuzzling their trainer in comfort.

Yep, this was turning out to be a very interesting journey.

* * *

><p><strong>Author Notes:<strong> Well, that was all for Chapter 2!

I hope you all liked it! Oh boy…writing May's initial anime character was a little weird… Well, not what I'm used from most of the anime. Oh well. I hope you enjoyed it!


	3. Back To Basics

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.**

"Speech"

_'Thoughts'_

_"Telepathy" _

**Author Notes:** And guess what? Here's chapter 3 of A New Chance For Adventure!

As usual, I'd like to thank my great friend **Ri2** for all the help he gives me, from idea bouncing to suggestions and editing and beta-reading. Thanks a lot! Also, I'd like to thank **Shakari** for additional help given for several elements of the fic's immediate continuity.

Now on to the chapter we go!

**Chapter 3 - Back To Basics**

* * *

><p>The walk through the woods to get to Oldale town was fairly calm and peaceful for the group, especially since their usual troublemakers Team Rocket had been blasted off earlier that day to who knows where. The sun was slowly nearing the mountains in the distant horizon and casting a beautiful orange afterglow across the sky that made the group smile at the sight of it, just a few hours before sunset. The group was very thankful to have May as a guide, considering their tendency to get lost on almost every trip that didn't have an expert in navigation like their friend Brock. So far May was a wonderful temporary addition to the team.<p>

"Oldale Town should be just a hill away," May announced to the group as she recognized the landscape they were going through as the one she had passed by just this morning, though she had done it much faster back then considering that she was alone and could ride her bike at full speed. Right now she had to drag it and adjust to the collective group's walking speed.

Bianca sighed in relief, pleased to hear that they were getting close to the next town. Walking around for several hours was something she definitely was _not_ used to, though she hoped she got used to the traveling soon considering she'd be doing that from now on. She had considered asking Latios to carry her for a bit so she could rest but ultimately decided against it, not wanting to trouble the Eon Dragon. "That's great to hear," she said, her tone laden with relief.

"Nice!" Ash shouted, grinning happily. "Pokémon League registration, here I come!" he exclaimed vividly, thrusting a fist dramatically and almost causing Pikachu to fall off his shoulder had he not reacted quickly enough and gotten a better grip.

May stared at him perplexedly for a second, affirming her thoughts on how weird the group she'd gotten mixed up with was. At least their company was reassuring and she could also learn from them. Ash had very interesting Pokémon and from what she saw in his battle with those three thieves and their Pikachu-robot, he was also a very strong trainer. She looked at the human form Latias for a second curiously, then to Pikachu, and then… she just stared up, not knowing where Latios was. Invisibility was indeed a nice ability. "Hey Ash," she began quietly, getting the cap-wearing trainer's attention.

"Yes?" Ash queried, turning slightly to look at her.

"Why do you keep half of your team outside their Pokéballs? I mean, aren't Pokémon supposed to stay _inside_ them?" May wondered curiously. That had been on her mind for a while now ever since meeting him.

"Well, Pikachu's been outside his Pokéball since day one. He doesn't like Pokéballs in the least and enjoys being outside with me," Ash answered, rubbing Pikachu's chin tenderly.

"That's interesting," May said, looking at the Electric-type as he smiled in contentment from Ash's touch. She walked closer to Ash and extended an arm, lightly petting Pikachu. Knowing that she didn't mean any harm and was just being nice, Pikachu allowed himself to be touched. "And what about the other two? How were they called…La-uhh…"

Ash chuckled. "Latias and Latios?"

May nodded. "Yes, them."

"Well, Latios I captured a few months ago and kept in a Pokéball at first but he started to dislike it too as time passed. Now I just put him in the Pokéball if there's no space for him where we are," Ash told her. "As for Latias, she traveled with us freely for a few months so I don't see why I should keep her in a ball when she's used to being outside," Ash explained.

"Ohh, so that's why…" May muttered. She took out Torchic's Pokéball and held if before her, looking at it intently for a few seconds with a frown on her face. "I wonder… should I do the same with Torchic? I haven't gotten any complaints from him yet."

"Depends on the Pokémon's choice," Ash answered her. "Most don't really mind being in the Pokéball, while some hate it. For example, my other three Pokémon don't really have any problem with being inside them."

May nodded and continued to look at Torchic's Pokéball. "I know so little about him…"

"Well, look him up in your PokéDex," Ash suggested. "That's what it's for."

"Oh right," May muttered, taking out her PokéDex and flipping it open. "Let's see…" she mumbled, pushing a button a few times until she reached Torchic's entry and began to read the information in it.

As they neared the summit of the hill, Ash noticed what seemed to be an odd formation of rocks on the far side of the road to the right. They were a series of large pillars that sprouted from the ground and rose for about a dozen feet in the air with numerous old-looking stone structures all around them. They looked like walls, most of them partially collapsed except for a large one in the center. "Wow, what's that?" Ash wondered aloud, walking closer to the rocks.

"A bunch of plain old rocks?" May answered in a tone that clearly implied she was guessing. She walked after him to get a closer look.

"I have n-" Bianca began to say, but she wasn't able to finish.

"They are way more than just plain old rocks!" A man bellowed, jumping from behind one of the collapsed walls beside Ash's group, holding a brush and a magnifying glass in his hands, causing Ash's group to jump and scream in terror, except for Latias and Latios, who had sensed his presence and thus weren't even remotely surprised.

"Uh, I'm sorry?" May apologized a bit uneasily at the sudden appearance of the scary man.

The scary man laughed. "Don't worry, its all okay. I'm Professor Alden. I am an archeologist and in case you were wondering these here are the Oldale ruins," he informed them, spreading his arms to motion to the ruins all around them.

"Oh, ancient ruins, no wonder," Bianca commented, looking around and getting a better picture of the place now that she knew what it was. "You were right about them being old, May."

Professor Alden huffed as May giggled. "But they aren't just plain! They are unique ruins!"

"And what exactly are you looking for here?" Ash asked curiously, wondering what could be in some ancient ruins that could be valuable. Maybe ancient Pokémon? He shivered, remembering when he almost became the breakfast of one in a previous adventure, and while everyone said that adventure had been a dream caused by Jigglypuff, deep down Ash _knew_ it had been real.

"Many things," Professor Alden answered cryptically. "There are many, _many_ legends centering on these ruins, and I seek the truth of the secrets that lay in them." He began to walk to the center of the ruins slowly as Ash's group followed him curiously.

"So, what kinds of things?" May asked inquisitively. Ash nodded, walking closer to Professor Alden to listen more carefully while Bianca looked around while trying to imagine how this place must have looked when it was in its glory.

"It is said that this place is a bridge between the ancient world and the modern world, that somewhere here is a way to see the Pokémon of the past, not in fossils but in the flesh, and learn what life was like long ago," Professor Alden explained. "It is said that hidden here is a place where you can see actual living ancient Pokémon, species that have not changed a single bit through thousands and thousands of years. The answer of how the past was is hidden here."

"Wow, that's amazing…" Ash muttered in amazement, clearly interested in the topic.

"And kinda hard to believe…" Pikachu added skeptically.

"_Wasn't Ash almost eaten alive by ancient Pokémon at one point in the past?"_ Latios asked, recalling that adventure Ash had told him of back in Johto when he had started telling stories about his travels to him and Latias.

Ash shivered again at that particular memory. "Yeah… not so hard to believe then…"

Pikachu shrugged. "I guess so. Let's hope the ones here don't try to eat people too."

"It is said that the portal is behind his door," Professor Alden said, motioning to a door made of some kind of odd steel with several very old runes running through it. Four indentations the size of pebbles in a triangle formation with one at the center were on the upper part of the door. "However, to open it, I need the four ancient keys…" the archeologist explained, pointing at the indentations. "Sadly, over the centuries, those keys are believed to be long lost."

"Can't you just smash the door down?" Ash asked, looking over the door intently, wondering if Latios could smash it down with a well-aimed Luster Purge.

"No!" Professor Alden yelled, getting between Ash and the door. "This chamber entrance has gotten very weak over the passage of time, one attempt to forcefully open it and this whole place would come crashing down!"

"Aww…" Ash moaned in disappointment. "I really wanted to see what a bridge to the world of the past was…"

"I don't know, that sounds dangerous…" Pikachu commented, not wanting to get into yet another hazardous adventure that could get Ash hurt, again.

Ash shrugged. "It doesn't seem very different from most of our regular adventures."

"Oh well… if you say so," Pikachu muttered. "Hey Latios, you're pretty old, tell Ash what the ancient world was like."

Ash's face lit up. "You could do that, Latios?" he said eagerly.

Latios face-faulted at the proposition the Electric-type had made. _"Pikachu, I'm not _that_ old! I'm just a bit over a century." _Ash pouted in disappointment.

Latias giggled. _"Well, Ho-Oh's far older than us, she probably knows more about the past."_

"Yeah, and back on Kanto she told us she was coming here to Hoenn didn't she?" Ash asked, recalling that meeting with the rainbow Legendary, definitely one of the most magical moments in his life.

Latios nodded. _"Yes, but I don't think it'd be very nice of us to search for her just to ask her what the ancient world was like."_

"She's probably old enough to know how the world was before the ancient world," Pikachu joked. Latios glared at him and gave him a headache. "Oww…" Pikachu moaned, slumping down on Ash's shoulder.

Professor Alden looked at Ash with a dumbfounded expression, seeing him talking to his Pikachu and…thin air? What an odd boy indeed. Writing Ash off as a crazy person—which wasn't too far from the truth-he turned to the door, looking at it intently as he thought of what could lay behind it. "One day I hope to see what truly is behind this door…" Professor Alden muttered. "Well kids, I'll go back to my work. I'll let you two continue on to your destination."

Ash's group nodded. "Okay, it was a pleasure meeting you!" Ash said.

Bianca smiled. "Good luck with the ruins. This place must have been wonderful in its prime."

Professor Alden nodded while giving a warm smile, glad to see that she seemed to be genuinely interested in the past of the ruins. "I bet it was…"

Ash's group parted ways with the archeologist, walking back to the road. Oldale town was visible down the hill, but after a couple dozen steps something else caught their attention. A small rustle in the bushes beside them made them turn around to look at them, and to their surprise a small Pokémon came out of the bush, looking around as if searching for something. It was a small blue round Pokémon with a pair of mouse-like ears, an equally round tail tip that was bigger than its body, and two white spots on the checks, reminding the group of Pikachu's cheeks. "It's adorable!" Bianca commented, looking down at the small blue Pokémon.

"I agree, it's so cute!" May followed, nodding in agreement.

"_He's so cute and cuddly!"_ Latias agreed cheerfully.

"Yeah, I agree Latias," Ash mused, looking down at the Pokémon.

"But what is it? I've never seen anything like it before," May asked in curiosity.

"Well, use your PokéDex again, that's what it's for," Ash suggested.

May nodded and took out her PokéDex. The machine beeped as it was pointed in direction of the Pokémon. "Azurill, the Polka Dot Pokémon. Azurill's tail is large and bouncy. It is packed full of the nutrients this Pokémon needs to grow. Azurill can be seen bouncing and playing on its big, rubbery tail," it said in its usual mechanical voice.

"I want it!" May squealed happily.

"Well, try to catch it, then," Ash encouraged her. Bianca, seeing that this was going to be another delay, just leaned against a tree to watch.

May nodded. "Okay, so I just grab a Pokéball and hurl it!" She said, taking out an empty Pokéball from the yellow bag strapped to her waist and tossed it at the Azurril.

Ash frowned as he saw what she was doing. "Wait not like that!" he said, but it was too late.

The Pokéball hit the Azurill in the head and popped open, sucking the Pokémon inside. Not even two seconds later the Azurill burst it open, freeing himself and glaring at May in annoyance fashion. "Hey what gives?" she yelled. "I should already have my first captured Pokémon!"

"It doesn't work like that, May," Ash told her, getting her attention.

May turned around to look at him. "But what did I do wrong? I tossed an empty Pokéball!" She exclaimed, crossing her arms.

"First, you have to battle the wild Pokémon so you can weaken it, or else they will never stay inside the Pokéball," Ash explained. "You're never going to catch anything like that."

Pikachu chuckled. "Hey Latios, Latias, if you're _still _curious as to how Ash was when he started, imagine Ash was like May, just ten times worse," he said, looking at Ash playfully. Latias and Latios stifled a laugh. Ash wisely ignored the trio.

May nodded and grabbed her only used Pokéball, thankfully not understanding Pikachu's comment. "Go Torchic!" she yelled, releasing the small chick Pokémon, who stood at attention. She looked clueless. "Uh… what was that attack again…"

The Azurill laughed at them and wagged his overgrown tail at Torchic. "Na-na-na-na-na-na, bet you can't catch me!" he taunted before jumping on top of his tail and using it to bounce away.

An angry look flashed through Torchic's eyes as he charged forwards. Azurill stuck out his tongue and kept bouncing away. "Wait! Torchic!" May called, running after both of them.

Pikachu sweatdropped and stared at the scene for several seconds. "Scratch ten times worse, make it just five times."

Azurill kept bouncing around as Torchic chased after him, failing each time he tried to attack the Polka Dot Pokémon. Azurlil bounced until he was facing a sturdy tree. He turned and saw Torchic incoming. The small blue Pokémon grinned and bounced a few times to gain momentum before taking an impressive forward leap and spinning to the front, causing his tail to whip back and hit Torchic's back, flinging the Fire-type into the tree rather forcefully. May winced at the blow. "Torchic!" she cried, running over to the very dizzy and almost knocked-out starter Pokémon.

Ash sighed when he saw that. "That was bad…" he mumbled.

Pikachu nodded. "Its not like you were any better, mister rock-beats-Spearow. At least May is _using_ her Pokémon," Pikachu commented.

Ash facepalmed. "You wouldn't listen to me! If you had I wouldn't have had to use the rock!"

Pikachu smiled at him. "Hey, but now I do," he said softly. Ash chuckled and petted him.

May crouched down to Torchic, feeling genuinely worried over the wellbeing of the small Fire-type, which Latias sensed with her empathy, making her smile slightly at May's growing affection towards Torchic. "Oh, next time wait until I say something, okay?" May said, gently picking the Fire-type up and cradling him in her arms. Torchic looked at her sadly and nodded.

"Uh… May, Azurill is escaping," Ash informed her, pointing to Azurill, who was bouncing away deeper into the woods.

"Get back here!" May screamed as she ran after him. Torchic jumped out of her arms to follow. The Azurill turned, an annoyed look on his face. "Torchic, use… uhh… what was that attack?" she paused and took out her PokéDex, causing the Azurill to stare at her in confusion as she looked for Torchic's attacks. "Right, use Peck!" she ordered once she had found the attack list.

Torchic lunged at Azurril with a battle cry. Azurill simply bounced to the side, causing Torchic to start pecking a tree instead. "Hahaha! Pathetic!" Azurril commented, bouncing and laughing at him.

A vein of irritation appeared on Torchic's forehead. "Take that back!" he screeched, chasing Azurill around again.

"Hey Torchic! Wait! I hadn't told you an attack yet!" May cried desperately, running after them.

"_They really need to talk to get in sync…"_ Latias noted as she and the group followed after them.

"It's not like me or Ash was any better compared to this when we started out," Pikachu muttered. "This brings back so many memories."

"Yeah, I agree," Ash said, nodding. "I hope May and Torchic get better soon."

Bianca kept staring at the scene. "Training Pokémon is far more difficult then it seems…"

Ash nodded in agreement. "It is…you have no idea."

Azurill bounced up and over a pair of bushes, grinning as he evaded Torchic yet again. Completely pissed off about the Azurill mocking him again and again, Torchic opened his beak and fired a barrage of small flame spheres in the form of an Ember attack towards the bushes. Torchic leaped in joy when he heard several cries of pain. "Take that!" he said triumphantly as May and the others neared.

Suddenly an Azumarril, a Marril and the same Azurill appeared from the bushes, all of them covered in several light burns with very angry looks on their faces. "You are so busted…" the Azurill sneered darkly.

"Oops?" Torchic muttered in fear at the three Pokémon looming over him. He was promptly blasted by a triple Water Gun that pushed him back and knocked him out instantly, leaving him unconscious on the ground with a big puddle all around him. Not satisfied with that, all three of them charged forward towards the already defeated Torchic.

"No!" May cried worriedly, seeing the three Pokémon go in for another attack at her defeated Fire-type.

"Pikachu, stop them!" Ash said, deciding to intervene to prevent any further injuries for Torchic.

Pikachu leaped from his shoulder, his tail shining brightly as he powered up an Iron Tail. He landed between Torchic and the three Pokémon, spinning his hardened tail as he did so, causing it to carve a firm line in the dirt in front of him. He took a few steps back and glared. "I dare you to cross that line," he said with a smug smirk as his cheeks sparked with electricity.

The Azumarill glared at him. Pikachu glared back. The Azumarill looked at the line and then back at Pikachu. The glare changed to an uncertain look. The Pikachu seemed very strong and well-trained unlike the Torchic. Knowing that if they tried attacking they'd be defeated fairly easily, they decided to back off and retreat back into the bushes. A splash told the others that they had jumped into a body of water, probably a river just beyond the bushes.

Seeing the danger was over, May bent down to pick up the unconscious Torchic, a worried look on her face. "Torchic…" she muttered sadly. "Ash, what should I do now?"

"You said the Pokémon Center was close didn't you? Well, let's take Torchic there to get him healed," Ash advised as May nodded in agreement. The group departed towards the Pokémon Center at a more hurried pace.

They arrived at the Pokémon Center quickly. After placing the bike in the bike rack and Ash returned Latios back to his Pokéball, May hurried over to the counter where Nurse Joy was. "Hello, how may I help you?" the nurse asked kindly. Seeing the distressed girl gave her a very good idea of what was up.

May leaned over the counter, showing Nurse Joy Torchic's Pokéball. "Please help me, my Torchic was hurt during a battle," she said worriedly.

Ash smiled slightly at seeing May so worried over Torchic's condition. '_That means she's starting to like him right?'_ he thought.

"_She's warming up to Torchic, but while she doesn't like Pokémon yet, she understands that caring for Torchic is a great responsibility and that she shouldn't neglect him,"_ Latias answered, sensing May's feelings as she gave Nurse Joy the injured Pokémon.

"At least her start with Torchic wasn't as rough as ours, just some mild coordination problems," Pikachu commented. "Right Ash?"

"Yep, I'll agree to that," Ash said, nodding. "At least they don't fight each other. Yet."

Nurse Joy placed the Pokéball in a machine behind her and initiated an analysis. Several charts appeared on the screen after a few seconds. While Ash, May and Bianca didn't understand them, Nurse Joy understood them perfectly. "Torchic's going to be okay. There's nothing serious, a long rest will suffice."

May sighed in relief. "That's good to know."

Nurse Joy took the Pokéball. "I'll take place it in the healing room so his recovery can be more stable. You can pick it up tomorrow morning."

May nodded. "Okay," she said as Nurse Joy walked to a back room.

"Torchic's fine. That's a relief. Poor little guy," Bianca commented softly.

"Yeah, at least Torchic will be okay, I was worried about him," Ash agreed. "Don't worry May, you'll do better next time." He put a hand on her shoulder and smiled at her warmly.

May looked at Ash meekly and nodded. "I hope so too… at least you were there to prevent Torchic from getting hurt further. Thank you."

Ash grinned cheerily at her. "No problem, May."

Bianca looked around. "Hey Ash, I'll go sit and rest for a bit," she told him.

"Oh, alright," Ash replied.

Bianca nodded back at him and walked towards a door to the side of the lobby heading to the lounge. She had been feeling tired as she was not really used to walking around for half a day. Ash seemed normal but then again, he'd been traveling for two years already and was most likely used to this.

She looked around. The lounge was a large room lined with sofas and tables for the use of Pokémon trainers resting over the course of their journeys. There were at least five or six people about, and Bianca presumed they must all be trainers. She spotted an empty table with a sofa and headed there. She took at seat and relaxed, finally enjoying a break after so much walking.

Ash turned to the counter as Nurse Joy walked back to it, having already put Torchic in a healer. "Hey, I'd also like a room for the night. Also, I'd like to register for the Hoenn League, please," Ash announced to her, especially eager about the last part.

Nurse Joy nodded, smiling at the boy's enthusiasm. "Let me check…" she muttered, rummaging through something behind the counter. "Yes, I have a spare room," she said, handing Ash a key.

Ash took the key. "Thanks!"

"Now, may I have your Pokédex?" the Pokémon nurse asked kindly.

Ash took out the little red machine and handed it to the Nurse. She took it and inserted it into a slot in her computer and began pressing some keys on the keyboard. "Okay, trainer Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town, twelve years old…" Nurse Joy read aloud. "And…done! You are now registered to participate in the Hoenn League. Good luck getting the eight badges to qualify!"

Ash grinned happily. "Thanks, I _will_ get those badges!"

Nurse Joy giggled slightly. The boy's over enthusiasm never stopped amusing her. "With your record in the Silver Conference, I know you will. That's quite an impressive team you've got there, do any of them need treatment?" she asked nicely.

Ash shook his head. "No thanks, none of them have had any tough battles recently."

Nurse Joy nodded and went back to her duties. May looked around. "Hey Ash, now that we're here, why don't you show me how Pokémon Centers work? I've never been in one before."

Ash nodded. "Sure. As you saw this is the lobby, where Nurse Joy usually is and where she checks up your Pokémon and heals them if necessary," he explained. He began to walk to the side and up some stairs to a corridor lined with suites, with May and Latias following him. He searched for the room Nurse Joy had giving him a key for, and once he had found it he opened it. "And these are the bedrooms, where trainers can stay for the night during their travels."

"Wow, it's really neat!" May commented, looking inside. The room had two double beds and some furniture. Overall it looked very comfortable.

Ash closed the door and walked back down the stairs, this time to the Lounge. "And this is the lounge. Here is were trainers can relax and take rests from their travels, or just talk with each other and share information or challenge each other to battles," he explained. Just like the room Ash had showed May earlier the lounge looked very neat and comfy. At one of the tables on the side she could see Bianca. She was leaning back while flipping pages through a sketchbook, and aside from her, there were at least five or so other trainers in the room.

May nodded. "Alright…" Both Ash and May's stomachs rumbled. They paused and looked at each other. May scratched the back of her head Mareepishly. "And what's there to eat?"

"Let's see," Ash said, walking towards the cafeteria to get something to eat.

After getting some food, Ash and May walked to the table Bianca was seated at to have their meal. "Wow, this is delicious," May commented once she had begun to eat.

"Yeah, I know!" Ash agreed happily, enjoying his favorite part of the day, lunch (and any other time that involved eating).

"Indeed, Pokémon Centers serve good stuff," Bianca followed, taking a bite out of the food the other two had generously gotten for her.

"Indeed!" Pikachu agreed, talking slurps from a ketchup bottle that Latias was kind enough to sneak out of the kitchen for him while no one was looking. Bianca and May stared at him oddly.

"Umm Ash… your Pikachu is…" May started, staring at the Electric-type in confusion.

"Eating ketchup? Just like that?" Bianca finished, equally perplexed.

Ash sweatdropped and Pikachu didn't even pay attention. "He has a very weird love for Ketchup…it's his absolute favorite."

"And all of this is for free?" May wondered.

Ash nodded. "Yes, so long as you're a Pokémon trainer."

May grinned. "I'm starting to really like Pokémon Centers!"

"Yeah, they're a big help for trainers. They've saved me and my friends on our travels more times than I can count," Ash said. The group kept eating and chatting among themselves.

"Well, well, if it isn't my traveling friends! Hello again!" Prof. Alden greeted them warmly, giving the group a smile as he walked over to their table, holding his own plate of food.

"Oh, hello professor!" Ash replied. "How's your ruin-looking stuff going?"

Alden sighed as he sat down with the group. "Not as good as I'd hope it to go, I still can't find anything to open the chamber."

"Oh hey, what are you doing here professor?" May asked curiously. The professor didn't seem like a Pokémon trainer.

"Well, Nurse Joy was generous enough to let me use a room here as an office and resting place during my investigation of the Oldale ruins. I came here to take a break," he answered.

"That was really nice of her," Bianca commented.

"It was, it's been a big help for giving me stability for the investigation of the ruins," the archeologist said. He took a bite out of his food. "Delicious!"

"Agreed!" Ash said happily as he and the others continued to eat while chatting among themselves and enjoying the meal. They mostly centered discussion on Professor Alden's research in the Oldale Ruins.

After eating and resting for several minutes, Ash stood up from the table, moderately surprising everyone. "Hey, I'm going outside," he announced.

Bianca and May stared at him in unconcealed surprise. "Why?" Bianca asked curiously.

"I want to go and train a bit with my team," Ash answered casually.

Bianca stared at him dumbfounded. "Ash, the sun's almost set," she pointed out.

"I know, I want to give my team a workout before sleeping, and I want to try something," Ash replied. "I'll be back soon, so don't worry. You coming?"

Bianca shook her head. "No thanks, I'd like to say here and rest for a bit."

May shrugged. "I think I'll stay and wander around to get to know the Pokémon Center better."

Ash nodded. "Alright, I'll be back soon." He stood up and began to walk outside.

Latias stood up and began to follow Ash, Bianca stared at her quizzically. "You're going too?"

"_Yeah, I'll just be there for a bit. I want some fresh air. I'll probably be back in a bit as unlike Ash, I really don't want to train in the night,"_ Latias told Bianca.

"Okay!" Bianca shouted from the table, prompting Professor Alden to stare at her in confusion as he hadn't heard the girl's apparent twin even say a word. He shrugged and walked to his own office, reasonably concluding that she was insane as well… those people talk to themselves…. Bianca, seeing that everyone had left, took out her sketchbook and began to draw to relax and pass the time.

After walking outside the Pokémon Center towards the outskirts of town, making sure to be far enough from it so as to not to bother anyone with his training while still keeping in sight of it. He looked at the horizon. The sky was beginning to darken as the sun was setting. The Pokémon Center's exterior lights had already been lit, along with those of most of the town. "It's a nice night," Ash commented as he gazed at the almost-set sun.

"Indeed, and refreshing. The night breeze feels good," Pikachu commented, closing his eyes as he felt the cool air blowing calmly.

Ash grabbed all as of his Pokéballs and released his Pokémon from them. Latios, Pidgeot, Phanpy and Larvitar appeared in bright flashes of light. "Hi everyone!" All his Pokémon returned the greeting with a smile.

Latios cocked his head. "Isn't it a bit late to train?" he asked.

Ash shook his head. "It's never late to improve!" he said vigorously.

Latias laughed as she came by, now back to her Pokémon form. "I guess it's not."

"So, any special reason for the little bit of night training?" Pikachu asked curiously.

Ash nodded. "Yep. Pidgeot," he answered, looking at the avian Pokémon with a smile.

Pidgeot blinked in surprise. "Me?"

"Well, it's been a very long time since I last battled with you, and I want to use you in my next Gym battle!" Ash answered, giving her a broad grin. "May said Petalburg city was clo-" Ash continued, but he didn't get a chance to continue any further as Pidgeot glomped him from the excitement of finally fighting alongside her beloved trainer in an official gym battle again. He fell on his back with the larger avian Pokémon on top of him.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" She squealed in delight, literally bursting with joy as she nuzzled Ash gently and carefully so as not to injure him with her sharp beak. Everyone on Ash's team chuckled in amusement at how overexcited Pidgeot got, despite being usually a calm and level-headed Pokémon. But considering that she had been away for over a year, they all understood her excitement pretty well.

Ash smiled and hugged Pidgeot back. "Haha, I guess that got you excited. Well, I'm just as excited to once again fight with you," Ash told her, petting her gently.

Pidgeot nuzzled him. "Thank you! I promise I'll do my best!"

Ash grinned at her cheerfully. "I know you will."

Pidgeot nodded. She laughed nervously when she realized she was on top of him and jumped off him. "Sorry about that. I just got kinda excited at the prospect of fighting alongside you again."

Ash laughed as he stood up. "Oh don't worry, its okay, girl."

"So, how will we train? And…why at nightfall?" Pidgeot asked curiously.

"As I was saying before you interrupted me," Ash began. "May said Petalburg city was close. I want to train now even if its night so we can get used to battling again and still let you get a good night's rest before the gym battle at Petalburg City, which should be tomorrow."

Pidgeot nodded in understanding. "I won't let you down!"

Ash hummed. "Latios, you can fly too, so you'll spar with Pidgeot. Can you handle yourself? I'll command Pidgeot," Ash requested, turning towards the Eon Dragon.

Latios nodded. "Sure Ash, I'll gladly help."

"Hey Pidgeot, how much have you changed since you fought that Fearow back when you evolved?" Ash asked curiously, wanting to get an update on her abilities.

"Lots!" Pidgeot answered instantly. "I knew one day you'd come for me, even if you took over a year," she began, causing Ash to fidget guiltily. "So even when I was leader of the flock I made a special time every day where I trained to get stronger to better protect the flock, _and_ because I knew your other Pokémon would keep training as you went to another tournament, so I didn't want to be left behind."

Ash grinned. "That's great to hear, Pidgeot!" he said cheerfully before adopting a more somber mood. "And sorry for taking so long to go back for you…" he apologized.

Pidgeot hugged him by wrapping her great wings around him. "Its okay, I already forgave you."

"Thanks," Ash replied with a small smile.

Latios floated over to the other end of the clearing. "I'm ready."

Pidgeot let go of Ash and stood before him. "Me too!"

"I'm not," Ash said Mareepishly. Latios and Pidgeot sweatdropped. "I don't know all your attacks, Pidgeot," he explained, chuckling nervously.

"Why didn't you say so before?" the flying-type muttered. She turned to Ash and whispered to him all the attacks she knew.

Latios blinked. "Why so secretive?" he asked in curiosity.

"I don't know your moves either, I want to take you by surprise," Pidgeot answered.

Latios grinned. "Alright."

Ash turned to Pikachu, Larvitar and Phanpy, who had been watching the entire exchange with interest. "While I focus on Pidgeot, why don't you three train on your own?"

Pikachu nodded and motioned to the two kids. "Come on kids, let's get out of Daddy's way," he told them, leading them away so as not to get in the way Pidgeot and Latios' battle.

"Yes Uncle Pikachu!" Phanpy said cheerfully, following after him. Larvitar followed along wordlessly. "Hey, we have a type advantage over you, how will you beat us?" he asked.

Pikachu chuckled. "I'll think of something. Remember, I'm more experienced than you two." Phanpy nodded, eager to show off to his uncle that he was strong too. Larvitar just shrugged and went along.

"What about you, Latias?" Ash asked, turning to look at her.

She sighed. "I'll pass. I'm just going to watch. Maybe I'll go back to keep Bianca company."

Ash smiled, letting her be. "Alright, but we've got to start training with you soon too."

Latias nodded. "I know, I know, but not in the night." She turned and glided towards a tree, shifted to her Human form, and sat down under it with her legs crossed to watch.

Ash and Pidgeot stared intently at Latios, ready to begin their sparring. Latios grinned at them. "Your move," he called out to Ash and Pidgeot.

Ash smirked, actually looking forward to fighting Latios. "Pidgeot, take to the sky!" he ordered, feeling an odd sense of nostalgia at once again using Pidgeot for a battle. She obediently flapped her wings and began to ascend. Latios followed, rising up to meet Pidgeot's height. But he still waited for Ash to start the battle, not moving an inch as he observed both of them. Ash knew Latios was awaiting their first move so he could counterattack accordingly, so he ordered a move that he knew he couldn't counter. "Pidgeot, start this with Aerial Ace!" he shouted.

Pidgeot quickly flapped her wings and dived forward. With a particularly powerful flap of her great wings she launched herself at Latios, her body parting the wind and causing many streaks of white wind blades to run past her from the sheer speed she was moving at.

Despite being an extremely fast Pokémon himself, Latios was surprised at Pidgeot's speed and Ash's aggressively offensive start of the battle. That valuable second of surprise was long enough for Pidgeot to smash into him forcefully, sending him back from the force of the blow. It took Latios a few seconds to regain his balance from the impact. "Wow, you're fast," he complemented, clutching where Pidgeot had hit. "And strong!"

"Well, I was using Aerial Ace, a speedy move," Pidgeot admitted. "Don't get confident! Even without it I'm still fast!"

Latios grinned. "Yeah, but so am I. My turn!" he said confidently as he reared back slightly.

Ash, knowing Latios was going to use his great speed to ram Pidgeot, quickly issued her an order so she'd have time to do something before Latios attacked her. "Quick, don't let him attack you, use Air Slash!" he ordered.

Pidgeot spread her wings wide and gave a mighty flap, sending two large white wind blades at the Eon Dragon. Latios saw the attack and was forced to dodge to the side instead of charging forward lest he take them head-on. "Keep it up Pidgeot!" Ash called out. Pidgeot nodded and keep attacking with Air Slash, flapping her wings continuously with great force, sending many wind blades towards the dragon.

Latios kept flying sideways, avoiding the flying-type's attacks and looking for an opportunity to strike at her. Deciding enough was enough, he quickly took off downwards and then sped upwards in the direction of Pidgeot. The change of direction had been so fast Pidgeot didn't have time to adjust her body and aim to fire an Air Slash at Latios. The dragon took a deep breath, preparing a DragonBreath attack. _'Got you!'_ He thought to himself.

"Pidgeot, use Aerial Ace to dodge!" Ash shouted.

Latios' eyes widened. _'Using Aerial Ace to dodge?' _He thought to himself in shock. _'But that's an _offensive_ move!' _Hoping to hit Pidgeot before she disappeared, he fired the DragonBreath attack, spitting a large stream of green fire upwards in Pidgeot's direction.

"_Seems you're on the wrong end of Ash's unique battle quirks that we question sometimes,"_ Latias commented mirthfully, giggling at the situation as she leaned against the tree.

"_Apparently!"_ Latios shouted back telepathically, eyes narrowing as Pidgeot disappeared in a burst of speed, leaving many wind streaks behind and dodging his DragonBreath. He looked around, expecting Pidgeot to ram into him but she didn't, which openly surprised him. He closed his eyes, spreading his mental senses to pinpoint the Flying-type.

"Air Slash!" Ash shouted as Pidgeot suddenly appeared at Latios' side. She flapped her wings once, sending another pair of wind blades towards Latios. "Now, Steel Wing!" Ash commanded.

Latios' eyes glowed as he used his psychic powers, firing a powerful psychic wave that clashed against the dual wind blades and canceled them out in a bright flash of light. However, Pidgeot suddenly broke through his psychic wave with her wings shining brightly, both hardened to metallic properties. Latios gasped. _'The Aerial Ace and Air Slash weren't the attacks, they were diversions!' _He realized. All this time Latios had seen Ash use unorthodox tactics on many opponents and he sometimes questioned them, but now that he was fighting those tactics, he realized just how good they were. He grinned. Even if Ash was this good it was going to take more than that to defeat him. Latios' body glowed in a light shade of blue as he turned invisible.

By the time Pidgeot reached where he was, he was gone. She looked around in surprise, trying to find him. She squawked as the invisible Latios rammed into her. Before she could retaliate, he flew to a different location. It took Pidgeot a few seconds to regain her balance. "Where is he?" she wondered, still looking around.

Ash closed his eyes, spreading his own developing senses to find the dragon, but couldn't located him. "Hey, what gives!" he growled.

Latios chuckled in his mind. _"Sorry, I'm not gonna let you find me that easily. I'm jamming your senses so you can't see me. Tough luck!"_

Latias grinned and telepathically implanted the knowledge of where Latios was into Ash's mind. _'Thanks!'_ Ash thought to her in gratitude. "Pidgeot, he's to your right and slightly above you, hit him with Air Slash, and then follow up with Aerial Ace!"

Pidgeot quickly turned and flapped her wings with exceptional force several times, firing multiple wind blasts before Latios had time to move away. The first two missed as Latios dodged them, but the third smashed into him, disrupting his invisibility. _"Hey sis! Which side are you on?" _Latios demanded Latias telepathically.

Latias grinned. _"On Ash's,"_ she answered, giggling happily.

"_Why didn't I see that coming?"_ Latios wondered idly to himself.

Latias' grin widened. _"Uh brother, you should be more focused on seeing Pidgeot coming." _

"Oh damn…"Latios muttered as he turned around, too late to do anything as Pidgeot smashed into him with an Aerial Ace. He cried out as he was forced back by the blow.

"Got you!" Ash shouted, jumping and pumping his fist. "We make a good team, Pidgeot!"

"That we do," Pidgeot agreed, feeling elated at once again fighting under Ash's command.

Latios narrowed his eyes. "Ready for round two?"

Pidgeot smirked. "Always," she said as both of them charged at each other.

Latias smiled to herself, seeing and feeling how good this small training battle was making Pidgeot feel. It was definitely a good morale boost for the Petalburg City Gym. Ash had been right about coming out to train here despite the time.

She looked to the side, seeing Phanpy and Larvitar struggling to keep up and hit Pikachu. The much more experienced, older and stronger Electric-type was fairing well against both of them, easily dodging their attacks and hitting them at every opportunity, despite the disadvantage.

"_Hey Ash, I'll go back to the Pokémon Center to keep Bianca company, she must be lonely,"_ Latias said, standing up and stretching.

Ash nodded. _'Sure Latias, go ahead, we'll be back in a bit when the training's done. Just remember we need to start with you soon enough as well.'_

"_I know," _Latias replied. She gave the training groups one final gaze before walking back to the town, going in the direction of the Pokémon center.

…

Bianca relaxed against the sofa she was sitting on in the lounge of the Pokémon center. She was currently drawing as that was something that immensely relaxed and soothed her. This rest was like heaven after the walk here, she really needed to get into shape for this kind of traveling.

She smiled as she looked at her current drawing. She was making a drawing of her best friend Latias in a battle against Pikachu. Despite having no visual of them she was capturing them pretty well. To add challenge and 'taste' to the drawing, she was making them both in very stylish poses and adding a sense of flash to their respective attacks.

She continued drawing for a few minutes undisturbed, adding details to her picture bit by bit as time passed, making sure to add as much life and details as she could. She was so concentrated in her drawing that she didn't notice someone had sat beside her, peeking interestedly at her picture. It was a young-looking girl with short, light brown hair and green eyes, wearing a yellow blouse and a mid-length pink skirt. "Nice drawing you've got here," the girl said.

Bianca gave a small start, but calmed down quickly. "Sorry about that," Bianca apologized. "I didn't see you, and thanks for the compliment."

"You're welcome," the girl said cheerfully. "I'm Janet. You?"

Bianca smiled. "I'm Bianca, pleased to meet you."

Janet peered closer at the drawing, greatly interested by it. "You've got good skill at drawing, these look amazing!" she commented. "The way they are drawn, the poses, the attacks…I'd guess you're a coordinator, right?"

Bianca blinked. "Oh?"

"You seem like one. The way you're drawing them makes me think that you're using your drawings to help you see how those moves would look in an actual contest," Janet guessed. "I'm a coordinator, too!"

"Um… I'm not a coordinator…" Bianca said Mareepishly, scratching the back of her head.

"Oh, I thought you would be," Janet said in a surprised tone. "If you aren't, what are you doing in a Pokémon center in such a small town?"

"Oh, I travel with a friend, he's a trainer competing in the Hoenn League," Bianca answered. "What about you? I don't think there are any contests near here."

"I just came here for an errand I have to do in Littleroot, after that I'll be going back to my home city," Janet answered. "Where's your friend, by the way?" she asked, looking around.

Bianca laughed. "As odd as it may sound, he went out to train a little."

Janet looked at her in puzzlement. "In the night? That _is_ odd."

Bianca nodded. "He's not the most traditional trainer around."

Janet laughed. "I look forward to meeting him…oh hey, I have to go ask Nurse Joy if my Pokémon are ready, and I might to go my room after that. Bye!" Janet told her, standing up and offering her hand.

Bianca shook her had and gave a friendly smile. "Pleased to have met you."

Janet gave a final grin and walked toward the reception where Nurse Joy was, leaving Bianca alone once more. But, now a lingering idea was firmly fixed in her mind. Janet had thought of her as a coordinator. Bianca stared at her drawing for a few seconds, considering the possibility.

Bianca knew very well what a Pokémon coordinator was. She often watched contests and Grand Festivals on television back at Alto Mare, she _was_ an artist after all, and to her a Pokémon contest was the finest representation of art applied to Pokémon. It was a way to turn battles and Pokémon training into something artistic, something that sought true appeal and beauty instead of brute force. Something she _liked_.

Bianca sighed, her imagination still running wild on the coordinator topic. She looked at her picture and smiled. She grabbed an eraser and began to erase part of the background details she had added, and once she was done she began to re-draw that section of the picture, now adding herself as if she was commanding Latias against Pikachu, her and Latias as a coordinator and her Pokémon. The young artist nodded in approval, the picture making her brim with happiness and new motivation as she began to change the setting towards that of a contest.

…

While Ash's group trained on the outskirts of the town, on the other side of it, at the small range of the woods facing the Pokémon center, a group of eight people waited calmly, hidden by the darkness of the falling night as well as the vegetation. All of them were dressed in the same uniform, with gray boots, pants and undershirt, with gray skirts for the women, red socks and gray and black gloves, and their most distinctive piece of clothing was a dark red half-hoodie shirt that had a small gray sphere and two gray horns on the top of the hood. They all had visors concealing the upper part of their faces. On the center of the shirt was their insignia, a dark gray logo composed of three upward facing spikes resembling mountains with a sphere in the bottom, resembling the magma chamber for a volcano.

One of them, a woman, reached up for her shades and slid a small switch on the side of it. The visor began to glow red as a thermal sensor activated. "Sixteen people in the Pokémon Center," she reported. "Professor Alden located."

The leader, a tall male, chuckled. "Perfect. Do any of them have any Pokémon outside?"

The woman shook her head. "Negative sir, however, there is one odd human in the group that seems to have too low a body temperature…I doubt it's anything to worry about."

"We will have to move with caution and perfect coordination. Remember the plan," the leader told the rest of the strangers.

One of them scoffed. "Heh, why should we be so careful? It's just a bunch of trainers that don't have any Pokémon ready, and even so, due to the closeness to Littleroot, they're all probably newbie trainers. Why not just storm in and take Professor Alden to save trouble? It's not like they can do anything to us," he said confidently.

"We shouldn't get overconfident. What if there's actually a very strong trainer in there?" a female agent speculated. "We could get into a rather difficult battle."

"Meh, there won't be any good trainers in there," the first one said offhandedly, an arrogant and smug tone in his voice.

"You two just jinxed us, now we'll find a powerful trainer in there…" a third superstitious male said, eyes narrowing and looking around in a paranoid fashion.

The leader facepalmed and almost caused his shades to fall off. "Would you three cut it out?"

"Yes Field Commander Tabitha!" they said firmly.

One of them couldn't help but chuckle, the confident one. "That's such a girly name…" he muttered to himself.

A vein appeared on Tabitha's head from anger. That was a common thing the entire organization bugged him about. "Don't make fun of my name!" he hissed angrily. "For that, you'll be in charge of locking all the people in there in storage."

He shrugged. "Eh, it's not like I'll have any problem, what do you think I'll find in there? A trainer with a Legendary Pokémon that'll kick my ass?" he said mockingly.

The superstitious one looked very worried. "You just jinxed us again, now we'll run into a trainer with a Legendary in there. Never, _ever_ tempt fate."

The confident one rolled his eyes. "Sure, like there's anything that can stop us in there."

The woman sighed. "Jinxed or not, let's just get this over with."

Tabitha nodded. "You three along with you," he commanded, pointing at the three that were arguing and a fourth one behind them. "You four will cut the power supply of the Pokémon Center, round up everyone and lock them away. They'll be good bargaining chips to convince Professor Alden to open the ruins of Oldale for us. Remember the plan."

The four nodded. "Yes Field Commander Tabitha!" they said, saluting. Some of them stifled laughs at his name.

"Me and the rest will take the professor to open the chamber in the Oldale Ruins," Tabitha continued, motioning to the three grunts behind him. "Hopefully in those ruins we shall find more information that shall lead us to the location of the great god, _Lord Groudon!_"

"Yeah!" all the grunts said excitedly at hearing the name of their deity.

"Move out!" Tabitha ordered. All of the seven grunts nodded.

The four tasked to round up and take hostages and two of the grunts with Tabitha's group each took out a Pokéball. "Houndoom, come out!" they said almost in unison. Six very large demonic black dog-like Pokémon with devil horns appeared in bright flashes of light that briefly illuminated their area of the woods. All of them wore a golden-colored armor that ran down their sides, hanging just where the legs started to enhance protection while still keeping mobility. On the chest was a large plate to protect from frontal attacks which was tied together with the two side armors with a lock resembling a skull. They also wore gold-colored helmets especially designed for their species. On the side of the armor was the insignia on the hoodies.

All eight grunts spread out, their respective Houndoom following them obediently, moving silently through the dark night.

…

Meanwhile in a phone booth somewhere in Oldale town…

"What? You three are in the Hoenn Region?" a voice said incredulously through the phone line.

Jessie, James and Meowth nodded at the same time, not that the person they were calling could see that. "Yes Boss!" they chorused in unison. "The one and only!"

Giovanni hummed to himself. This was interesting but still unnecessary as these were the three dopes that constantly kept reporting negative results. "And since you've taken the liberty of calling me on my private line, I assume you have some good news, it's been a long time since you three have done anything even remotely useful," Giovanni said over the phone, then wondered to himself if there ever was anything useful for them to start with.

Jessie, James and Meowth paused. "Uh, well… I don't think there is any…" James muttered.

"Useless idiots!" Giovanni roared over the phone.

Team Rocket flinched. "We've been following that rare Pikachu of that twerp Ash Ketchum we've been telling you so much about! And of course, two Legendary Pokémon, a Latias and Latios also belong to him," Meowth said quickly to calm down their enraged leader.

Thankfully for the trio, that did the trick. "What? You mean the trainer Ash Ketchum from the Silver Conference?" Giovanni asked. He paused slightly, remembering that this trio had been chasing this Pikachu for a long time...how had he forgotten he had three agents tagging along with this trainer? Maybe because he trashed most of their reports before even reading them... "Perhaps that _might_ be good news. What else?"

"Well… we've been followin' him, tryin' to steal his Pokémon, but we've failed a lot, so... Uhh…" Meowth continued, unsure how to say what he wanted to ask next. He pressed a paw into the phone so Giovanni didn't hear him and turned to James. "You say it!"

James bristled. "What? Me? No fair!" Meowth released his paw from the phone. James looked nervous for a second before continuing. "We'd like to see if we could get some funds to…get better machines and increase our chances to catch them…"

"No!" Giovanni said angrily. "You three aren't getting more money! Work under your usual income and pay for yourselves!"

Jessie, James and Meowth cringed visibly, and then sighed in dismay. "Okay…"

"However," Giovanni began, causing the Rocket trio to perk up in hope. "There is something I am interested in regarding you three. It seems you've finally reported something good to me. You said something about a Latias, and from what I saw in the Silver Conference, that stupid trainer _only_ had a Latios, not a Latias. Explain _now_."

"Oh, you see, after the Silver Conference, we attacked the twerp to steal his Pokémon but to our surprise he also had a Latias, not just a Latios," Jessie explained. "So, he had two Legendary Pokémon…and we lost."

"Good, I may have a job opportunity for you three. Follow Ash Ketchum and don't lose sight of him. Keep trying to steal his Legendary Pokémon and Pikachu. I don't care if you fail constantly, just don't let him leave your sight. That's your mission. I want information on where Ash Ketchum is at all times;_ don't_ lose track of him no matter how much you fail at stealing his Pokémon," Giovanni ordered. "If you three can do that correctly, then I might consider giving you access to more resources."

Without saying anything more he hung, ending the call. Team Rocket looked happy. "The boss…actually…_gave us a mission!_" Jessie squealed.

"Awesome! We're being taken into account for something!" James added, his eyes twinkling with hope.

"One step closer to being top feline!" Meowth gushed.

"We're getting a promotion!" they chorused happily.

* * *

><p>Elsewhere…back in Kanto…<p>

Giovanni hung the phone, staring at it for several seconds while thinking profoundly. This was a very interesting piece of information. He had seen that trainer in the Silver Conference and his Legendary Pokémon Latios. The thought of sending a special unit to attack him and retrieve his Latios _had _crossed his mind several times, but with him being in a Pokémon league, that was nearly impossible. Security was too good, plus there was the presence of the Elite Four and Champion in the vicinity. With Project Incarceration's imminent start fast approaching, he couldn't risk being discovered just for that.

But it wasn't just that, he knew who Ash was, very well. That trainer had foiled many of his plans and plots, _many _of them. Giovanni's hand tightened into a fist from anger just thinking about it. He would not allow it to happen ever again.

Now he had gained very valuable information. That kid had a Latias too, and he was in the Hoenn Region. He had tasked the two agents who had the Hoenn Legendary Pokémon as their targets for Project Incarceration to speed things up, and now he could inform them of Ash Ketchum's presence in Hoenn and possibly have him dealt with, or be one step ahead of him. _'With those three useless agents tailing him all the time, I will always know where Ash is. That way I can have my operations run more smoothly without being worried about him showing up and ruining things. This is a very good opportunity,_' Giovanni thought, grinning sinisterly.

A beep came from a small voicebox on Giovanni's table. The Team Rocket Leader pressed a button on it. "Master Giovanni, agents Iron-Masked Marauder, Tyson, and Dr Namza reporting," Giovanni's secretary said. Promptly a loud annoyed correction from Namba echoed, though it went ignored by both the leader and his secretary.

"Let them in," Giovanni said simply, releasing the button. His Persian meowed and sat down beside him as he adjusted his swivel chair to face the doorway to his office directly.

Seconds later, the door of Giovanni's office slid open. The three aforementioned Rocket agents walked in and stood in front of Giovanni's desk.

"We've finished with your orders to speed up this particular team's assignment, and I have the plans ready," Doctor Namba began. "And I'd like to report some other things."

Giovanni nodded. "Go ahead. What's the procedure you will take?"

"This team's five targets for the Prison Ball all reside in the Hoenn region. As such; this team will be dispatched there to begin gathering information on any of them. Also, I took into consideration your request for information on the two rival criminal teams of the Hoenn Region," Doctor Namba started his report, his tone calm and steady.

Giovanni nodded. "Indeed, I do wish to learn what Team Aqua and Team Magma's plans fully entail, and if they will pose a possible threat to us."

Tyson stepped forward. "The Marauder and I will set out for Hoenn immediately. Once there, each one of us will seek to enroll ourselves within one of the teams. I will enter Team Aqua and Marauder will enlist in Team Magma. We will ascend through the ranks as fast as possible to gain access to much more information," he explained resolutely.

The Marauder nodded in agreement. "The only thing we have knowledge of is that they seek to capture and control the Legendary Pokémon Groudon and Kyogre, but how they plan to do that or for what goals we do not know. We will seek to acquire as much information as possible and attempt to sabotage any operations that would put Team Rocket's plans in danger."

Doctor Namba grinned wickedly. "Also, by infiltrating the teams, both of our agents will have closer access to knowing the locations and more detailed abilities of Kyogre and Groudon. With that we may get closer to capturing either of them."

"Indeed," Giovanni agreed, nodding while seemingly pleased with the team's plans. "Groudon and Kyogre are powerful beings. I want to know all that Team Aqua and Magma know about them and how they plan to find them, capture them, and what role they have in their plans and how those plans may pose a threat to our own. I want to know _everything_. Understood?"

"Yes sir!" Both Tyson and the Iron-Masked Marauder answered while saluting.

"I want a report every two weeks on their activities and all other information you may gather. If an event of great importance happens, I want to know of it immediately," Giovanni added. Both agents nodded. The Team Rocket Leader turned to look directly at Namba. "What of Rayquaza?"

Doctor Namba hummed in thought. "Rayquaza is a mighty Pokémon commonly associated with Groudon and Kyogre. The operations and movements of Team Magma and Aqua may eventually make them take Rayquaza into consideration. Our information is scarce regarding that Pokémon, but Team Aqua and Magma may have more data on it," he suggested. "As for the next two targets, Latias and Latios, we know that they are considerably weaker than Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza. We'll leave them as final resorts should we be unable to get the first three."

Giovanni nodded. "Very well, but still make the strongest of the five the top priority. Anything else to report?"

Doctor Namba nodded back at him "Yes. Tyson and the Marauder will not take their Prison Balls in their initial travels across Hoenn."

"Hmm?" Giovanni muttered, raising an eyebrow a little at the unexpected news. "Why not?"

"When initial enlisting with Teams Aqua and Magma is done, they may make inspections and constant supervision of our two agents while they are in the lower ranks. If they were to discover their Prison Balls, it would be disastrous for Team Rocket," Namba explained. "We cannot afford that at any cost."

"Indeed, good forethought," Giovanni agreed. "I feel there is more to it, though…"

"There is. Professor Sebastian and I wish to do further research and field tests for the Prison Ball," Namba began. "Just because they are very powerful now doesn't mean they are at their strongest yet. We will do more tests to gather more data and more accurate measurements on its power than those we already have, and also test its effects on a larger variety of Pokémon. Also, we'll see if we can make any upgrades or modifications to the Prison Ball to increase its power, viability and performance."

Giovanni closed his eyes and sighed to himself for a few seconds. "You say there might be ways to make the Prison Ball better?"

"Yes, that's what we want to figure out. We will use them more efficiently, plus, should they have a problem, we can correct it before real field use where the smallest mistake could cause disastrous results, and also see if we can find ways to improve them. Now is our best opportunity, we can use the Prison Balls of Tyson and the Marauder for that purpose while they are in Teams Aqua and Magma," Namba answered. "It's not like they'll need them just yet."

Tyson stepped up. "Once they're all ready, they will be delivered to us immediately. By then we should have the trust of the leaders of Aqua and Magma so carrying them won't be a danger. Also, we will be closer to Groudon and Kyogre, and maybe even Rayquaza."

"Doctor Namba, I assume you realize you can't have such tests here," Giovanni stated darkly, already knowing what the scientist had in mind. "We are too close to a populated region."

"I know, the lab centers and base here in Viridian City simply won't cut it. That's why the first ever live test, the one with the Weavile, was done in the main Team Rocket HQ in the mountains, its natural isolation makes it perfect for such tests to go unnoticed. Professor Sebastian and I have already issued the order to all personnel for relocation there," Professor Namba replied, nodding curtly.

"Very well, because you aren't the only ones," Giovanni told them. They frowned.

"We're not?" Namba asked skeptically.

"The Pokémon League is seeking to reactivate the Viridian City Gym and will rebuild it and also place a new Leader in charge. The increased Pokémon League activity here will make covert operations too dangerous and our risk of exposure too high. I will soon order the Viridian Team Rocket center to disband and all personnel and equipment will be shipped to the main headquarters," Giovanni explained. "I trust you will be out by then?"

Namba nodded. "We will."

"Weren't you the Gym Leader of Viridian, boss?" Tyson asked.

"Yes I was, but I didn't reapply for leadership because being a Gym Leader no longer fits my plans. I have different focuses at the moment. Nanza, I-" Giovanni started.

"It's… Namba…" the scientist said, shaking in anger at the recurring problem of people getting his name wrong. Just how hardwas it to memorize the name Namba?

"Whatever," Giovanni continued, not caring about the scientist's name. "I expect good results on the Prison Ball. If you have success I'll give you and Sebastian any funds necessary, even if we put our numbers in the red. It doesn't matter as long as Project Incarceration succeeds."

"Alright, that should be all for now Leader Giovanni. We'll make our leave," the Marauder said as he, Tyson and Namba turned to leave the office. They had a long task ahead of them, after all.

"Wait, I have one last thing to tell you," Giovanni said as the three men halted.

"What is it?" Tyson asked, curious as to what else the leader could have missed.

Giovanni closed his eyes for a second and sighed wearily. "I have an important piece of information for you three. Do you know of a Pokémon trainer by the name of Ash Ketchum?" Tyson, Doctor Namba and the Iron-Mask Marauder cringed visibly at hearing that _accursed _name. Giovanni grunted. "I thought so, just checking," he mumbled. The three men's reactions were more than enough to tell him the answer.

Tyson growled. "That kid… defeated and stopped me at the Lake of Rage and foiled Project R…"

"He defeated me when I gained control of Celebi with my Dark Ball… he made that Pokémon somehow release itself!" the Marauder muttered angrily, wisely omitting the fact that he had wanted to take over Team Rocket with Dark Celebi, and that the same thought had already crossed his mind regarding the Prison Ball.

"That kid beat me and released the two Lugia I captured at the Whirl Islands!" Doctor Namba followed sadly. He frowned. "Wait, he's messed with and beaten _all_ of us?"

Giovanni nodded sadly. "Not just you three, he's defeated agents Annie and Oakley, and apparently he's beaten me and agent Domino too, though I can't remember it thanks to Mewtwo's mind erasing. However, I have video footage and several records from one of the helicopters that suggests Ash's involvement there."

"How come a big bad evil organization like us keeps losing to a kid that's not even thirteen years old yet?" Tyson wondered idly. "He looks like he's ten or something!"

"I have no idea how that is possible, and I don't intend to let it happen ever again," Giovanni began to say as his tone rose with each passing word, trembling from barely controlled ire. "The information I have to give you is that I have visual confirmation that Ash Ketchum is in the Hoenn Region."

"Dammit!" the Iron-Mask Marauder swore.

"Oh crap, he's where we're going?" Tyson growled, hands tightening into fists.

Giovanni nodded. "Yes, and they reported that he has two Legendary Pokémon in his possession, a Latias and Latios, two of our possible targets. However, they are already captured. Doctor Number, can you and Professor Sebastian make it so that the Prison Balls can override regular Pokéball systems and capture already captured Pokémon?"

Doctor Namba facepalmed, but didn't make any attempt to correct the Team Rocket leader seeing as it would be no use. He decided to go straight to answering his question. "I am not sure, but I believe it might be possible. I'd need to do further study for that. I can stage it to be a future upgrade for the Prison Ball."

"Alright, back to Ash. I have ordered three low-ranking Team Rocket operatives to keep following him. They are agents Jessie, James and their pathetic talking Meowth. Should you need to know where Ash is at any given moment, contact them," Giovanni informed them.

Tyson and Iron Mask nodded, the thought of revenge crossing both their minds. "Alright," the Marauder said. "I look forward to meeting him again…"

Giovanni sighed. "As much as I'm sure you three want payback, remember, Ash Ketchum placed third in the Silver Conference and has two Legendary Pokémon tagging along with his group. Should you run into him, evaluate your situation _very carefully._ If you feel the slightest doubt on the possibility of victory, _DO NOT_ engage him in battle and retreat. You two are no use to me defeated. If you feel you can destroy him then you are free to do so," the Team Rocket Leader told them sternly. "Don't let pride get in the way, do not fight him unless victory is one hundred percent assured, and if you can, I want him dealt with _permanently_." Both men nodded, the emphasis on the last word telling them exactly what Giovanni meant.

Tyson frowned. "Both of us have a full six Elite Pokémon Team from the organization's reserves. You still advise that much caution?"

Iron-Mask Marauder grunted at his proposal. "I had a Celebi and still got defeated by him, so I question the use of six Pokémon…" He muttered. He looked at his vest. Of course he wouldn't keep those six Pokémon in their regular Pokéballs, the second he had picked his six Pokémon from the reserves, he had released them and re-captured them with his custom Dark Balls. Even so, would that be enough? _'I hope so, that kid owes me one, and I'll make him pay for it!'_

"Yes, as young as that brat is, he is no person to joke with. Do not engage unless victory is assured, got it?" Giovanni ordered firmly.

Both Tyson and Iron Mask saluted. "Yes sir!"

"Dismissed," Giovanni ordered, turning his back on them with his swivel chair while petting his Persian slowly, giving a final dark chuckle as he contemplated his plans to rule the world…

* * *

><p><strong>Author Notes:<strong> And with this, chapter 3 of A New Chance for Adventure comes to a close! I hope you all liked it!


	4. Night Of Distress

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.**

"Speech"

_'Thoughts'_

_"Telepathy"_

**Author Notes:**

Here's chapter 4 of A New Chance for Adventure at last! How will Team Magma do against Ash? Read to find out!

**Chapter 4 - Night Of Distress**

* * *

><p>Latias strolled across Oldale Town at a sedate pace, humming a happy song to herself and enjoying the cool night breeze as she walked towards the Pokémon Center in her Bianca disguise. She found herself liking the town a lot; it was so calm and peaceful, just like her home Alto Mare had always been. After a few minutes she got to the Pokémon Center and entered, giving Nurse Joy and a girl she was talking with a silent smile and a friendly wave before making her way to the lounge where her best friend was. She walked towards her, noting Bianca was very absorbed in a drawing on her sketchbook, it seemed like nothing could distract her from it. Latias blinked. It had been a long while since Bianca had been so lost into one of her drawings, she seemed like she was having fun and clearly enjoying herself.<p>

Latias grinned to herself, glad to see her friend so happy. _"Hey Bianca, what are you drawing?"_ Latias asked, the curiosity of what could Bianca be drawing finally making her interrupt the artist. She walked over to the table Bianca was sitting at after being left alone by the parting of everyone else.

Bianca actually jumped slightly in her seat from the surprise and interruption of the sudden voice in her mind and looked up to Latias' mirthful expression. She quickly lifted the drawing of herself commanding Latias in a contest battle a little nervously to hide it from the dragon girl's sight, not really sure how the Psychic dragoness would react to the image she had been working on. "Hi Latias," Bianca greeted awkwardly, something she found odd to feel around the dragoness she had always trusted so closely.

Latias tilted her head curiously as she took a seat, facing the young brunette artist. _"What's wrong Bianca?"_ Latias asked tentatively, sensing her discomfort and nervousness through her empathic abilities. It was odd that the artist would react like that when asked about her drawings since she was generally very proud of her works, did this one have something that made her uncomfortable?

"It's just… I'm a little nervous about showing you this one," Bianca answered shyly, something that was definitely uncharacteristic in Bianca's regular firm and strong adamant attitude.

Latias smiled cutely. _"It's okay you know, we're best friends. You can show me, maybe it's not as bad as you're thinking,"_ the disguised dragoness said nicely. _"But if you want to keep it to yourself, I understand and won't pry anymore."_

Bianca took a deep breath and steeled herself, realizing that Latias was right and maybe an image of her using Latias as a Pokémon of her own in a battle wasn't really that bad and Latias wouldn't take any offence from it, so she showed the Legendary Dragon her sketchbook. Latias grabbed it and looked at the drawing, her face neutral for a second as she gazed at it. And then, to Bianca's surprise, she grinned cheerfully. _"This is awesome!"_ The Dragon commented, gazing at it intently and taking in every little detail of the wonderful picture. _"I'm still jealous of your skill for painting. Wish I was that good."_ Latias pouted.

Bianca couldn't help but giggle at Latias' adorable pout, even if it was her own looks, though pouting like that was something she usually didn't do. "Really?" Bianca asked, just to make sure.

Latias nodded immediately, without a single doubt. _"Yeah, I don't know why you were nervous; it's a neat contest battle. I'm so beating Pikachu in it,"_ she said telepathically, then laughed.

Bianca smiled and found herself laughing along with Latias, even if her sound was projected mentally and she just made the physical gestures. "Glad you liked it Latias. I was a little nervous because… well, there I'm the coordinator and you're my Pokémon, following _my_ lead and not Ash's. I was just nervous how you'd react to that," Bianca explained.

Latias handed Bianca her drawing back and shook her head. _"I like it a lot, and I'd happily follow your commands Bianca, be it in a regular battle or a contest or whatever, we're friends after all,"_ Latias told her softly, picturing how that would be. _"I'd gladly do so."_

"You would?" Bianca asked in surprise.

Latias nodded. _"Sure, why not?"_

Bianca grinned. "Cool," she commented, and then resumed drawing while Latias watched her intently. "I don't have any regular Pokémon to begin with, yet a Legendary Pokémon's willing to fight for me." She giggled. "That's interesting."

Latias smiled. _"That's friendship for you."_

The lights flickered slightly and suddenly went out, casting darkness on the lounge of the Pokémon Center. Everyone there looked around in confusion at the sudden lack of electrical power in the Pokémon Center. Bianca frowned. "Figures, the Center must be having a blackout; I wonder if it's the whole town or just here..." She whispered, tucking her sketchbook into her bag slowly. "I can barely see a thing in here."

"_I can see perfectly fine,"_ Latias spoke telepathically.

Bianca rolled her eyes. "You're a Legendary Pokémon Latias… hey; you can do lots of tricks with those feathers of yours, think you can glow in the dark or something?"

Latias nodded, even if Bianca didn't see it. _"Yeah, I can glow quite brightly if I want to, but there's other humans here, and to glow I have to be in my true form, obviously."_

"Aw, right," Bianca said, frowning.

"Hey what's going on?" A trainer called confusedly, standing up from his seat. Several of the people in the longue stood up as well, trying to look around the pitch-black darkness. "Anyone got a flashlight?"

Latias narrowed her eyes and looked around. Something was wrong, she could _feel_ it, even in the blinding darkness of the powerless Pokémon Center, her enhanced eyesight allowed her to see clearly, and now that she was paying closer attention to the feelings her powers felt from the environment around them, she noted some people entering the Pokémon center, negative intentions rolling off from their bodies like a cascade, all of it picked up by her empathic abilities. She flinched, not that it could be seen in the dark. _'Oh no, this is bad! How did I not notice them? Oh right, my human form limits my powers, and to top it all off I wasn't paying attention…' _Latias thought, mentally smacking herself for being so careless. She felt the people divide quickly once they had entered the Pokémon Center in a well-coordinated fashion which meant this was more dangerous than she first thought, and tensed when four of them approached the lounge where she and Bianca were.

"Latias?" Bianca asked slowly in a silent whisper, and jumped in fright when the door of the lounge was tackled down violently by a large and vicious-looking Houndoom clad in golden armor. Bianca gave a slight cry of fear and shivered at the sight of the demonical canine Pokémon, the darkness only heightening the terrifying image, almost like the Houndoom and darkness were made for each other. She knew she had no Pokémon with her if she had to defend herself, her only protection was her best friend, Latias.

The disguised Dragon girl reached towards Bianca's hand and tightly grasped her wrist, pulling the artist against her back so she was behind Latias. _"Relax Bianca, I won't let them hurt you, or anyone else,"_ she told her steadily, glaring at the intruder and their Pokémon defiantly.

Four people, their forms barely seen in the darkness, entered the room after the demonic canine had opened the door, the only clear sight of them were their ominous red glowing visors. "All right, everyone!" One of the hooded figures shouted as three other Houndoom entered the room, adding to a total of four Dark Pokémon. "All of you, to the center of the room now, and no one will get hurt," he roared out, the canine Pokémon growling harshly at the echo of his command. The night vision visors of the intruders allowed them to see easily in the dark, in contrast to the rest of the humans in the lounge.

'_Can you fight them off Latias?'_ Bianca thought, peeking over her shoulder as the people of the lounge stood fearfully and complied with the order. In the total darkness and not knowing how many Pokémon they would be dealing with, those few trainers with Pokémon decided to obey out of fear and not risk their Pokémon or themselves, and others didn't have any in the first place, all of them given to Nurse Joy for treatment. _'What do I do Latias?' _Bianca asked, still hiding behind her. The feeling of danger reminded her so much of that night in Alto Mare, when the Team Rocket agents attacked, and by how tense and serious Latias was, it was clear the same memories coursed through her.

_"No, they have four Pokémon out, and all are Dark-types. I can't touch them psychically, which means most of my current abilities are out of the question. I could knock the humans out with a thought, but I don't know how those Houndoom would react to that… there's too many other people here and the room is too small, I can't fight here Bianca, someone could get hurt…"_ Latias answered her best friend telepathically.

Bianca nodded, knowing Latias was right. _'So, you mean…'_

Latias signed and pulled Bianca along to the center of the room, guiding her silently towards where the mysterious villains were rounding everyone up. _"Yes, we'll follow their demands for now. If they try to harm anyone, I'll step in. I'm worried about the things they have over their eyes though, if they know who I really am it'd be very troublesome. Annie and Oakley used something over their eyes to see through my disguise…"_

Bianca looked at Latias' human form in concern. _'What about Ash? And Latios! We need them!'_

_"I already sent a telepathic distress message to my brother,"_ Latias answered. _"They're on their way here. But they can't fight inside the center for the same reason I can't. Latios said that they'll be waiting for the bad guys outside, but if they try to harm anyone, they'll burst in."_

'_This feels so much like that night at Alto Mare…' _Bianca thought, shivering slightly at the memories that had grown dominant on her mind, intense panic running through her.

"_Yes,"_ Latias admitted while keeping her mental voice still calm and collected to keep Bianca calmed down as well. The last thing Bianca needed was that her only form of protection was scared too. Latias' empathy was bombarded by the intense fear coming from the rest of the people in the longue, and she felt saddened that she couldn't do anything for them at the moment, but she knew that if she was patient the time to help would come to her. _"But there is also one big difference now than Alto Mare."_

'_What?' _Bianca thought, wondering what Latias was thinking about.

Latias smiled slightly to herself, unseen by anyone. _"This time, I'm not defenseless. And my brother is a lot stronger. We'll get through with this, you'll see." _Latias pulled on Bianca's wrist slightly, pressed Bianca against her back and let her feel the comfort that she was there.

The hooded people were talking among themselves and one of them, a woman, looked at them. With a press of a side key in her visors they shifted from night vision to thermal sight. She had wanted to get another look at the group of captives from another mode, just in case they could pick something out the first hadn't. Much to her surprise, she saw something the night vision hadn't seen. One of the humans in the room was reflected oddly on her visors. _"Why does she have a low body temperature… that's illogical…A human wouldn't be able to live with that body temperature…'_ She turned to the other hooded grunts. "Round them up and take them to storage, and keep a close eye on that one, she's… different," she ordered, then clicked her visors back to night vision as she pointed directly at Latias, who looked back at her defiantly. She couldn't help but feel that even in the darkness and behind her visor, the look Latias was giving her wasn't a friendly one, and the power behind her stare made her feel very uncomfortable. She wondered… how did she know she was looking directly at her?

The female grunt was interrupted out of her trail of thoughts by another of the grunts. "Alright, move it!" the tallest one shouted, making a few of the humans jump in fright. To accent his claim, some of the Houndoom barked viciously and another growled loudly. "Move it!" He shouted again, pointing to the hallway leading to the storage area.

…

Meanwhile, May and Professor Alden had been talking about the ruins and his research in general. She'd been wandering around the Pokémon center getting to know the place and eventually stumbled into Alden's office. Both had been extremely surprised when the lights had gone out. "Lights out," May muttered.

Professor Alden frowned. "This is strange, the Pokémon Center has a backup generator for emergencies but it hasn't kicked in…"

"And it won't kick in anytime soon," an ominous voice said, chuckling darkly. Both May and Professor Alden whirled around quickly at the sound of the voice and saw the door burst open, and in the darkness of the electricity deprived treatment center saw four human figures and three very scary Pokémon. The only stand-out trait of them was their visors, glowing an eerie red as the night vision mode was active.

"Who are you?" Professor Alden demanded angrily, glaring at the figures.

Field Commander Tabitha chuckled. "Ah, seems like we have a feisty one here, good. You don't need to know who we are, all you need to know is that you're coming with us," he said simply, his voice neutral. "We need a little favor out of you."

Professor Alden growled. "I'm not going with dirty crooks like you!"

Tabitha shrugged. "Okay. Houndoom, attack the girl," he ordered calmly as both Alden and May's eyes widened in terror at what they had just heard.

The Houndoom charged forwards and prepared to leap at May, jaws shining darkly with a Crunch attack. Alden realized that these people were really dangerous and had no remorse in attacking a young girl, and he was quick to step in the way, causing the Houndoom to skid to a halt. Alden held his arms out desperately. "Alright! Alright! I'll go, don't hurt her, she's just a kid!" The archeologist said quickly, trying to sway the villains from attacking May.

Tabitha smiled mockingly. "I knew you'd see it our way. Take the Professor with us and get his personal computer, as it may have some information regarding our goal with the ruins and also take the tablet with the instructions to open the chamber. Send the girl with the team rounding the people up, leave two guards and the rest come with me," he ordered to his unit.

"Yes Field Commander Tabitha!" The three Team Magma grunts repeated obediently, saluting… and then stifled giggles.

"Such a girly name…" One of the Magma Grunts muttered. Alden struggled to hold a laugh; he'd have found that name extremely hilarious if he and May weren't in such great peril, surrounded by two vicious Houndoom.

A vein of anger appeared on Tabitha's forehead. "Don't start with that again, and follow my orders!" He roared, stomping his way out. "Incompetent grunts!"

One of the grunts grabbed the terrified May's arm, which put up little resistance, her eyes wide in terror and focused on the very scary demonic Houndoom. The fact that she barely saw the Pokémon in the pitch darkness only made it worse.

…

"One more girl and everyone will be locked in," The Team Magma female said, waiting for the other grunt to get back with the girl they had found with Alden so they would be done. Sure enough, a few seconds later the grunt arrived, dragging May by the arm.

The Grunt shoved her inside harshly, causing her to lose balance and trip. She would have fallen unkindly to the floor, but Latias quickly caught her and held the terrified girl reassuringly. "Alright, everyone's here." One of the grunts nodded.

"See!" The confident grunt shouted, causing the other five grunts to look at him. "All this was so easy, they're just a bunch of scared wimps." He turned to the superstitious one. "Where's your 'you jinxed us' crap now?"

The female grunt face-palmed and shook her head sadly. "Not that shit again…"

The Superstitious one frowned. "Don't say that, there's still a chance it might be fulfilled. You jinxed us badly with that strong trainer and trainer with Legendary Pokémon statements!" He said back, and Latias and Bianca raised an eyebrow and looked at each other.

The woman glared at them, not visible through her visors. "Shut up and lets be on our way or else Tabitha is gonna have our heads. Hey, you two!" She pointed to the Grunt that had dragged May to the storage room and another one of the five. "Keep the hostages in check; if they try anything, feel free to attack. Keep your Pokémon out and ready. The rest of you, let's go!" She turned and ran down the hallway, and the confident and superstitious grunts followed her. The two grunts left turned to the storage room and closed the large metal sliding double-door and locked it, their two Houndoom growling menacingly to warn any of the prisoners from trying to do anything while their numbers were diminished.

Bianca looked at May. "Are you okay?" She asked worriedly. She knew Latias wanted to ask that too, but she couldn't do it as her telepathy hadn't assimilated May yet.

May nodded, shaking a little. "A bit scared, but I'm fine…" She answered as she looked at Latias, her eyes meeting the disguised Dragoness. Latias smiled kindly at her, causing May to smile back, feeling secure in her arms. Latias let go of May once her scare had died down and she was strong enough to stand on her own without shaking.

A sudden brightness caused everyone to turn to Nurse Joy, who had lit a flashlight from one of the many boxes on the storage. "We need to restart the power fast!" She cried worriedly.

"Why?" A trainer asked.

The Pokémon nurse looked very saddened. "Many of the Pokémon in the treatment room are connected to equipment that needs electrical power to work; they might be in danger if we don't start the main power or the backup generator!" She answered, horrified.

"Oh no! Will my Pokémon be okay Nurse Joy?" Another trainer asked, walking up to the Nurse.

"And mine?" Another one, a girl, asked with a scared tone in her voice.

Nurse Joy frowned. "Everyone please calm down. We need to work on a way out…"

"Well," A girl that Bianca identified as Janet, the girl from earlier that had mistaken her for a coordinator, started. "Those bad guys aren't directly seeing us…many of us still have some Pokémon with us. We could knock the door down and fight the crooks left to guard us, there's only two of them." she suggested.

Nurse Joy shook her head sadly. "No, that's out of question. So many Pokémon on our side will only affect our coordination, and remember, all we have is this measly flashlight, we can't see in the dark. They have those visors and Houndoom can see in the dark. We can't fight them; it'd only go bad for us and put our remaining Pokémon in danger!" She said miserably. She wanted nothing more than to fight these criminals, but not at the expense of the safety of so many other Pokémon… but if she didn't fight them she'd be putting other Pokémon in danger. She looked to the floor, feeling overwhelmed and not knowing what to do.

Bianca turned to Latias, who was looking relatively calmly at the door that was keeping them locked in. "Latias? What's next?"

"_We wait,"_ Latias answered calmly.

Bianca frowned. "But Latias, you heard what they said. The Pokémon in the center are in danger!"

May turned and looked at Latias. "You beat up those bad guys and their robot on the way here; you'll beat up those here too, right?" She asked, looking at the Eon Dragoness hopefully.

Latias smiled and put a hand on her best friend's shoulder reassuringly, then nodded to May. _"I never said the wait was going to be a long one. Tell the rest of the Humans to calm down and stop making so much noise, we'll be out soon."_

"What are you waiting for?" Bianca asked curiously.

Latias smiled at her. _"You'll see, I promise it won't take long. I still need to deal with the guards and their Houndoom, that's why I need to wait for a little something to happen before I can initiate my fight against them. Now calm down everyone… tell May to help you,"_ Latias answered telepathically and closed her eyes, waiting patiently. Bianca nodded, trusting Latias like she had always done and motioned to May. Both turned to the group of arguing trainers and the disheartened Nurse and walked towards them to calm them down.

…

Tabitha walked towards the Pokémon Center's reception area and waited patiently while the grunts finished locking the people in the storage. Professor Alden was behind him along with the two other grunts. Shortly afterwards the other grunts entered the reception area, having finished their previous task.

"Prisoners secured, commander!" The confident grunt answered. "And we weren't jinxed," he added, throwing the superstitious one a glare.

"Whatever," Tabitha said uninterestedly. "Let's go to the ruins of Oldale now. Alden, you've got a secret chamber to open up for us."

Alden growled. "I'm not opening such a wonderful ancient place for bad guys like you!" He shouted stubbornly.

Tabitha chuckled. "Well, remember we left two agents watching the prisoners in the Pokémon Center, and they're well armed with powerful Pokémon. If you don't open it I guess that's because you wouldn't mind reading tomorrow's newspaper headlines saying 'A dozen people die roasted in a Pokémon Center' right?" He questioned, glaring at the archeologist from behind his visor. "If you don't open the ruins, I'll order my men to burn the Center down along with everyone inside."

Professor Alden's eyes widened. "N-no…" he muttered weakly, shaking at hearing that. "You wouldn't, yo-"

"We would," Tabitha said firmly. "It's your call, Alden."

"I'll do it…" The archeologist said weakly. "You're… heartless…" He muttered angrily.

Tabitha shook his head. "We aren't heartless, if we were we would have burned the center down already and killed everyone and then forced you to open that chamber through torture," he said with a shrug, and then grinned darkly. "We're not so bad are we? We're offering you a nicer solution where no one comes out hurt and we still get what we want. Team Magma doesn't seek to harm people; our goal is to make a better world by correcting ancient mistakes done by powers that are above humanity. Killing a dozen people here won't help us nor hinder us; it's the same thing for me. Let's go!" He ordered as he began to walk away. The five grunts with him followed their commander, along with a disheartened and hopeless Alden.

As they got to the trail that would lead them to the ruins of Oldale Town and the secret chamber Team Magma was so desperate to open up, they noticed a lone figure standing in their way. It was a boy, not looking any older than ten with a Pikachu sitting on his shoulder.

Tabitha raised an eyebrow at this. The Team Magma group stopped a dozen feet away from the boy, a challenging air around him as he looked defiantly at the Team Magma squad. "Move it kid, we're busy."

"Let him go," Ash growled out in a warning tone.

Alden's eyes widened. "No! Get away! These are bad people! They could hurt you!" the professor shouted desperately, not wanting the young boy to come to harm.

Tabitha nodded. "You should listen to him. You want us to let him go?" He chuckled mockingly. "Well, what if we don't do that?" He sneered.

Ash narrowed his eyes. "I'll beat up all of you and free him myself," he said challengingly.

Tabitha looked at the boy, wondering if he was stupid or something. "Uh, are you all right in the head kid?"

Ash nodded. "Yes, now release him before I beat you all!"

There was a second of silence and then the entire Team Magma Squad burst out loud laughing, which lasted for over a minute. Ash chuckled lowly and shook his head sadly; they were picking the hard way. "Time to make little kids cry then," Tabitha mumbled. "Seriously, what's up with you kids? If you're a starting trainer, don't think a Mudkip or Torchic or whatever Birch gave you will stop our Pokémon!"

Professor Alden's eyes widened. "Ash, get away while you can!"

The confident grunt nodded. "I'd like to be the one to make him cry. Houndoom, use Flamethrower!" He ordered.

The demonic canine that was his took a step forward and spat a torrent of flames towards the boy. Suddenly, to the entire squad's surprise; the stream of flames was torn apart and blasted away from the youth by an unseen force. The Team Magma group looked at the boy in surprise, wondering how the flame attack from their Pokémon had missed.

With a shower of blue sparkles, Latios revealed himself right in front of Ash, a firm and threatening glare in his bright red eyes and his claws outstretched in a combat ready stance.

Time seemed to stop for the entire Team Magma group. All of them had seemingly frozen in time, and as if in a well rehearsed move, they all whipped around to look at the confident and superstitious grunts. "See! See! I told you!" The superstitious one yelled loudly and then glared at the confident one. "You jinxed us! There's the proof! There's the dammed proof!"

"In the name of the holy lord Groudon, the kid's got a _Latios_!" Tabitha said incredulously, completely baffled at what he was seeing to the point of contemplating taking his visor off to see if he was seeing this right. He paused as a certain memory clicked in his mind. "He must be that Silver Conference boy," he commented worriedly at the sight of the group's new opponent. "No wonder he made such bold claims, things have gotten a lot harder!"

Ash smirked. "I will not repeat myself. Let professor Alden go!" Latios narrowed his eyes dangerously at them to empathize what would happen if they declined.

Tabitha pondered his chances. He had five men and himself along with many Pokémon. If he coordinated his forces right he might be able to pull this off. "You three," he began, pointing at the superstitious, confident and woman grunts. "Fight him and keep him distracted. I and the other two will proceed to the objective."

Reluctantly, they saluted. "Yes sir," they said with little enthusiasm, making it obvious they didn't want to be the ones to fight the kid and the Legendary Pokémon, but they had to as it was their Field Commander's direct order.

Tabitha looked at the boy and the Latios. He knew very well about Legendary Pokémon as his organization was actively pursuing one, the Creator of the land and continents, Groudon. Tabitha subtly reached for his visor and clicked a button, activating a special recorder feature to take a short video of the kid, and most importantly, the Latios. Maxie, the leader of Team Magma, would most certainly be interested in this. "Houndoom, if Latios attacks us in any way, attack Professor Alden," he ordered, knowing that was a good counter. All the Team's Houndoom nodded at the same time, taking in the order of the superior.

Latios growled. _"Darn, that makes knocking them out psychically out of question…" he_ grumbled psychically so he didn't give any indication to the well-organized enemy squad that he was holding a conversation with his trainer.

_'Why?'_ Ash asked. _'I still don't like it when you do that but if it's to free Professor Alden from those crooks, go ahead.'_

_"It's not that, Ash,"_ Latios answered. _"That guy who I presume is their leader is a lot smarter than he looks. I picked up his thoughts, he knew I had the power to knock them all out with a thought, since he ordered the Houndoom to attack the professor guy… if I knock them out the Houndoom will attack Alden. I can't even just snatch their Pokéballs because of that order."_

'_Can't you knock the Houndoom out psychically too?' _Ash asked, eyeing the villainous team closely as three of the grunts the leader had motioned stepped forwards. Ash knew he had to fight them.

_"No, they're Dark types. I wouldn't be able to, and even if I improvised something… it'd be too risky,"_ Latios answered telepathically. _"And I doubt you'd like me to take a risk with Alden's life."_

"Oh right, I remember now, Houndoom are Dark-types," Ash muttered. "I had forgotten."

Tabitha chuckled. "Good luck kid. You'll need it."

The three grunts stayed in line in front of Ash, while Tabitha and the rest entered the treeline, planning on rounding the battle site. _'Shouldn't you try and stop them?'_ Ash asked.

Latios shook his head. _"With Alden so close I can't attack freely in fear of hurting him, and if I do the three in front of you will attack you, and I wouldn't be able to protect you. They were very smart in using Alden as a human shield to get away from me. I think it's best to deal with these three first, and then go to save Alden,"_ Latios explained. _"They shouldn't be that difficult. It'd be easier to take them out in groups of three rather than all six at the same time."_

Ash nodded. _'Okay. How's Latias?' _He asked worriedly, his thoughts drifting to the Eon Dragoness and remembering she too had to deal with the rest of the villainous squad back at the Pokémon Center.

_"She's fine so far, we're constantly talking through our bond. Don't worry about her, we're against the clock with these three, we need to deal with them fast so we go after the other three later,"_ Latios responded, narrowing his eyes at the three grunts.

Each grunt hurled their Pokéballs, two per grunt plus the Pokémon each had out already as Ash reached for his own Pokéballs, knowing this was going to be a difficult battle and he was outnumbered…

…

Latias' eyes opened._ "It's time."_

Bianca perked up. "Really? That was fast."

Latias smiled. _"I did say it wasn't going to be a long wait."_

"What were you waiting for?" Bianca asked curiously.

_"For Ash and Latios to confront the other group,"_ she answered._ "If I freed you all too soon, some of them might come back as reinforcements and make it too difficult. Now they're too busy dealing with Latios and Ash to come back. That was our plan."_

Bianca nodded. "Okay Latias, what do you want us to do?" She asked as the Humans walked closer to them, wondering how this girl's twin would get them out. They had been arguing when the one with the pack and beret told them they'd be free soon and that they should quiet down. They tried to argue back, but a glare from the other twin was enough to shut them up for some reason… she had an intimidating air to her look that just killed any desire to argue with her, leaving them quietly wondering what she was.

_"Tell them I'll open the door and distract the grunts. As I'm doing that, they're going to run for the reception area and get the electrical power and everything up while I'm dealing with the crooks,"_ Latias explained telepathically. _"Tell them to just do it and don't ask questions."_

Bianca nodded and turned to everyone. "Okay, she says that she'll open the door and distract the guards. While she does that run off to the reception, Nurse Joy, and get it all fixed," Bianca translated. "And no questions, just do it."

Janet, the coordinator that she had met earlier, tilted her head. "But how is she gonna do that? They a-" She started, but was interrupted.

"Shh, no questions, please," Bianca cut her off. "Just do it. Okay, go ahead Latias," she said, turning to the disguised dragon. It was the first time the humans had heard Bianca say her name out loud, and that caused some of them to wonder even more about the twin's identity, especially Nurse Joy, since she knew well what a Latias was.

Latias walked forward until she was in front of the large metal door, and grinned. Her eyes glowed as he was covered in a shower of blue sparkles for a few seconds, completely hiding her form. When the light receded everyone gasped and was shocked to see… the female grunt of the villainous squad that had attacked them.

Bianca blinked. "Um, Latias? What was that for?"

Latias turned around and winked to her, unseen under the creepy visor. The copy of the enemy girl was perfect despite only seeing it once in the dark, though the dark didn't affect her enhanced and powerful eyesight. She focused on the door and her eyes glowed, looking for the locking mechanism. When she found it she began to psychically feel her way inside it, feeling every firm piece and all the movable parts, and once she got a feel of how it worked and built an accurate image of it in her mind, she unlocked it. With a loud click the heavy door began to slide open.

"Wow…" May muttered in astonishment at the Dragon's abilities, each more surprising and shocking than the lost. "She can open locked doors? Cool."

"How did she do that?" Janet whispered in astonishment.

"Um, she's Psychic," Bianca said quickly.

"Oh," Janet said, believing it instantly, as did everyone else. After all, everyone knew Psychics had all sorts of weird powers.

"Huh?" One of the guarding Grunts muttered, turning to the door and setting his visor in night vision mode. "Squad sub-leader? What are you doing in there? How did you get in?"

Latias put her hands on her hips and put on a very annoyed face. The other Grunt looked nervous; the squad sub-leader had a bitchy temper... "H-how did you get in there? Didn't you go out with the Field Commander? Uh, did we lock you in by accident?"

Latias nodded wordlessly, she lifted her arm and pointed down the hallway. The first grunt looked at her in confusion. "What's down there?" Latias pointed more insistently and put on a pissed-off face.

The second one blinked. "Yikes! Is there someone else left there?" He asked, intimidated.

Latias nodded, and made a motion with her head to that direction. "Uh, okay?" The first one muttered, and began to walk in that direction. "We'll go and investigate."

The other grunt followed him. As the grunts walked down the hallway, she noted the two Houndoom were giving her a very distrustful and angry look. Latias glared at them, and the grunts called out to the Pokémon. They slowly followed the grunts, looking extremely suspicious. Latias sighed._ 'I can't believe this worked, they're too stupid for their own good,_' she thought to herself, laughing quietly.

She motioned her arm inside the storage area and pointed to the opposite side of the hallway, in direction of the reception. _"Go, they fell for my trick," _she told Bianca.

Bianca nodded. "Alright everyone, follow us up to the reception!" She told them.

They nodded back and began to run out of the storage in a careful manner, not wanting to trip or bump into each other in the dark, running down the hallway opposite to where the disguised Latias had sent the two idiots away. The Houndoom that had been glaring at Latias turned and barked at all the commotion. "Huh?" One of the two grunts questioned as he turned, his visor revealing the scene. "What the hell?"

The other grunt growled. "That can't be the squad sub-leader! Then…" He pressed a switch on the side of his visor, switching it from Night Vision to the thermal sensitive sight, which revealed the low temperature the false grunt had, and behind her all the hostages fleeing. "That's…that's that weird cold human we were told to watch out for!"

Latias shook her head pityingly as she reverted back to her Bianca disguise, villainous uniforms weren't her ideal of a comfortable disguise. The first grunt shook in rage at being tricked. "Houndoom, use Flamethrower!" He shouted, having absolutely no concern that he was ordering his Pokémon to attack humans directly.

The Houndoom opened its muzzle and spat a powerful stream of red hot fire down the hallway, eerily illuminating it. Many of the fleeing people screamed, seeing the attack. But to their luck it wasn't getting past Latias.

She extended one arm and her eyes glowed, causing a powerful wall of psychic powers to form in front of her, completely blocking the Houndoom's attack and isolating it from the hallway to prevent a fire. With a thought, she dispelled it harmlessly. Even with her diminished powers inside the limiting human form, she was more than capable of defending them. Many of the people that had watched the flame attack in shock gazed at Latias warily, just wondering how strong this Psychic was.

There was a light buzzing sound as electricity filled the corridor, and then the lights flicked back on and illuminated the center once more. Latias had to be impressed with Nurse Joy's speed. _'At least the Pokémon are safe now. Well, got to finish dealing with these guys…'_

The Grunt growled in frustration. "Houndoom, use Crunch attack!" He ordered. The demonical canine barked and charged at Latias, its teeth lengthening as dark power gathered in them.

"Latias!" Bianca cried in concern, seeing the large canine running up at her. Latias felt Bianca was the last remaining human in the hallway, indicating she had stayed behind while all of the others had gone to the reception with Nurse Joy.

Latias took a few steps back, not from fear, but because her tactic required her too. Once she had passed the storage door, she waited, and less than a second later the Houndoom lunged at her. She gave it a sympathetic smile, causing the Houndoom to wonder for a second what this strange human was. Usually when it lunged at humans with the intent to kill they didn't return looks like that…

Latias' eyes glowed when the Houndoom was in the position she had been waiting for, directly passing in front of the storage door. Suddenly a large supply crate flew through the door, flying with a lot of force from Latias' psychic pull.

The crate smashed into the armored Houndoom violently, smashing it through the corridor wall and knocking it out instantly. Bianca actually winced at the sheer force of the impact; Latias hoped Nurse Joy didn't get mad that she had broken down the wall... _"Bianca, get to the reception where it's safe. I'll be fine,"_ Latias told her best friend mentally.

Bianca shook her head. "I'm staying here Latias, I'm not leaving you alone," She said fixedly. Latias smiled, she had always liked Bianca's willful, independent and strong attitude, and felt touched that she was going to stay by her side. She returned her gaze to see the grunt returning the knocked-out Houndoom back to its Pokéball.

"Quick, get back to the hostages and shut the power down again!" The Grunt whose Houndoom had been defeated shouted. "I'll handle this freak!" The other grunt nodded and ran off to the other end of the corridor along with his Houndoom, leaving the single grunt alone with the human-form Latias and Bianca. He grinned darkly, his face hidden in the visor and hood. "You're mine, freak…"

He grabbed two Poké balls from his belt as he prepared to release his two remaining Pokémon, but suddenly both of them slipped from his hands and flew towards Latias, where they stopped in front of her, both surrounded in a light blue glow. Bianca laughed. "Easiest way to beat an enemy trainer ever," she commented.

_"Indeed,"_ Latias answered back. _"He's not doing much without these."_

"Hey," the Team Magma Grunt called out, infuriated. "Give me those back!" He ordered. Latias shook her head and stuck out her tongue childishly. The Grunt fumed in anger. "I'll take them back by force!" he threatened seriously.

Latias shrugged uninterestedly. Bianca looked over at the villainous guy, wondering what Latias was planning. _"Bianca, tell him it's best if he gives up and surrenders," _the eon dragoness told her best friend telepathically.

"She says that you should give up," Bianca translated, still keeping herself a good distance behind Latias.

The Team Magma grunt scowled, angered that such a little girl was getting the best of him, what a brat. He charged at her. No one would get away with something like this, not even a little girl, never. He was a well built and very tall man, he was confident he could snatch up two Pokéballs from this weird girl. "Give them to me or else!" The grunt threatened again.

Latias shook her head once. The angered grunt lunged at her and threw a punch aimed directly at her face with all his physical might. However the disguised Latias raised a hand calmly and intercepted the punch with her open palm. To the grunt's complete surprise the girl's hand didn't budge even an inch back, it was like his fist had hit a solid unmoving rock wall. _"You shouldn't hit a girl you bully,"_ Latias mused to herself telepathically even if she was sure the grunt couldn't hear her, giggling silently at the grunt's face of total shock that the girl had blocked his best punch so easily. Her eyes glowed slightly as she prepared to knock the grunt out psychically, but stopped in interest when he backed off and reached for his belt.

"Okay you little bitch, now you've angered me," the Team Magma grunt said dangerously as he pulled out a very long combat knife from a holster hidden on his leg. Bianca's eyes widened in horror when she saw the weapon, however Latias didn't really seem surprised. "Give me back those Pokéballs, now!" He ordered, holding the knife forward. Latias didn't move nor make any motion to answer. "That's it then!" He lunged at her again, this time he grabbed his knife firmly and stabbed directly at her upper chest.

"Latias!" Bianca cried in concern, terror gripping her.

Latias, however, didn't look very affected by the forward attack. As the grunt neared her, her right hand snapped forward with stunning speed, grabbing the knife firmly before it got close to her right _by the middle of the blade _and stopped it in its tracks near-effortlessly. The grunt gasped and looked stupidly at the girl's hand and then at her in disbelief. She had stopped his stab by grabbing the blade? To his even greater stupidity and shock, not a single drop of blood fell down from her hand. The girl didn't even seem bothered despite just stopping a very forceful stab with her hand, she didn't even look to be making an effort. "Wh-what are you? What t-the h-hell is g-going on?" The grunt asked in shock, looking into the girl's golden eyes. He growled and applied as much of his physical strength as he could, his arm shaking, but even so the girl's hand didn't even move an inch.

Latias looked at him unimpressed, and tightened the grip on the knife with her hand. With a quick twist of her wrist, the blade was snapped in half, the distinct sound of metal breaking echoed all over the corridor. The grunt gasped in surprise, looking with an idiotic expression between the broken knife, the girl's hand, and then at the overly sweet and cute smile she had that made him cower in fear. Bianca sighed in relief, putting a hand over her chest, feeling her pounding heart. Latias cocked her head. _"Bullying a dragon who happens to be a Legendary Pokémon is never a good idea."_ Her eyes glowed, and the Grunt started swaying to the sides in a dizzy manner, and dropped to the floor, unconscious._ "That's why."_

Latias whirled around to continue on their way and blinked in surprise when she found herself face to face with a not very happy Bianca. The young artist gripped the legendary's human shoulders tightly and glared at her sternly. "Latias! Don't do that ever again, you worried me sick with that! You could have gotten hurt!" Bianca cried, her voice thick with worry and still shaky from the scare.

Latias tilted her head slightly, but smiled, her empathy picking up all the emotions Bianca felt for her, and how much she cared for her wellbeing. She reached up and pried Bianca's hands off her shoulders, and before the girl could react Latias pulled her into a tight hug._ "I'm okay Bianca."_

"But Latias…" Bianca insisted weakly, her worry slowly melting away.

Latias smiled as her entire body glowed, and she reverted back to her dragon form, hovering down a little so she was at eye level with Bianca. _"Sorry for scaring you, but remember, I'm a Legendary Pokémon," _she said soothingly, smiling gently. _"I'm not gonna get hurt or killed by something as simple and trivial as a human's knife."_

Bianca sighed unhappily, looking directly into Latias' bright and loving golden eyes. After a few seconds she smiled and pet Latias' head gently, scratching her behind the ear. "Alright Latias… just don't scare me like that again, okay?"

Latias nodded, humming in pleasure at the scratch. _"I won't," _she answered. She reached forward and licked Bianca's cheek affectionately. _"Sorry about it."_

Bianca fidgeted lightly in surprise by the affection, but smiled gratified nonetheless. "It's okay Latias, you're fine and that's what matters, it's just that it was very scary."

Latias turned and her eyes glowed as she scanned the storage room, lifting a long rope and taking it out to the hallway. She looked at the unconscious grunt and psychically tied the rope firmly around his ankles, wrists and arms. _"That's gonna keep him bound."_

Bianca nodded. "Yeah, that looks very tight."

"_Come on, Bianca," _Latias began, turning to look at her human best friend._ "Let's go and get the other bad guy before he harms anyone."_ She wiggled, getting comfortable in the tight and smaller hallway while in her dragon form. _"Wow, its kinda tough fitting in, Latios would probably be hopeless in here. Good thing I'm not claustrophobic."_ She giggled. _"Let's go."_

Bianca nodded and followed the Legendary down the hallway, looking at her with a fixed expression and thinking back to how she easily dealt with the Houndoom and later the grunt, all without any fear or doubt in herself. As she stared at her she found herself thinking back to the way she was at Alto Mare and how radically different Latias was now. Back then at their home she'd constantly rely on Latios' protection and she always hid behind him in the face of danger… now she was different, she stood fearless when in peril, she wasn't as ill-trained as she was back at Alto Mare, and even if Latios was still stronger and better trained than her, Latias was definitely no weakling either. She was now strong and very capable of taking care of herself. _'Latias…'_ Bianca thought to herself, her gaze still fixed on the dragoness in front of her._ 'She's changed so much… now she's the one doing the protecting… she's so amazing now.'_

Bianca blinked in surprise when Latias giggled, turned her head and winked at her. _"Thanks,"_ the dragoness said appreciatively, before returning to her path. Bianca shook her head in amusement and followed the dragoness.

…

Meanwhile, just as Latias was beginning her actions at the Pokémon Center to free the hostages, Ash was beginning his ordeal against the Team Magma grunts that had stayed behind to fight.

Ash growled slightly, looking at the lineup of Pokémon the villains had set out against him. "Nine against five… not very fair… as usual, the odds are against us."

Pikachu shrugged at his trainer's comments unworriedly. "Not really, I mean, look at the poor puppies, one of us are worth at least five of them, including the kids." He smiled, looking at Larvitar and Phanpy.

"I'm worth ten at _least_," Latios commented, glancing at Pikachu out the corner of his eye with a sly grin adorning his features. The electric mouse-like Pokémon glared at him in annoyance.

The confident grunt laughed, not understanding what the two Pokémon were saying. "Legendary Pokémon or not, we're gonna beat the crap out of you, little kid… you're so doomed."

"No! You're jinxing us! Now we'll lose and get beaten!" The superstitious one cried. "Shut up already dammit!"

Ash laughed at them. "True, bad guys always lose."

Pikachu nodded. "Ask Team Rocket. I don't really care about the number disadvantage, it's more than proven that we fight better at a disadvantage, whether it's type-wise or number-wise."

"I've always wondered why that happens, but let's not question it and do this quick," Latios said, looking at the Team Magma Pokémon. "We need to beat them fast so we can go to the Oldale Ruins and get the rest of them, as well as rescue the archeologist guy."

Ash looked at his Pokémon, going over each of them slowly. Latios, Pikachu, Pidgeot, Phanpy and Larvitar, all five of them standing in a clear line in front of him, with Latios at the center, giving the clear impression that if any of the Team Magma grunts wanted to harm Ash, they'd have to get through them first. Ash then shifted his gaze to the enemy Pokémon. In front of them were five armored Houndoom, three armored Mightyena, and one Pokémon he didn't recognize, a large orange Pokémon with what seemed to be two mini-mountains on its back, also clad in the same style of armor as the rest of the Pokémon. Ash took out his Pokédex. The little machine beeped once and read the information on the Pokémon in a mechanical voice while displaying an image. "Camerupt, the Eruption Pokémon. Camerupt have volcanoes inside their bodies, which can erupt and spew lava from the humps on their back when angry."

Ash raised an eyebrow in surprise when he heard what the Pokédex had just said. "Wow… that sounds tough... wait, how does having a volcano inside of you work? That sounds painful," Ash said, wincing while looking nervously at all the Pokémon.

Latios nodded and chuckled at his comment. "They're somewhat tough, I admit." He noticed Ash seemed a little nervous. "What's wrong Ash?" He asked curiously, glancing at his trainer out the corner of his eye.

Ash looked at all the Pokémon and frowned. "Latios, I don't think I can command so many battles at once… its nine against five, I can't keep watch on so many Pokémon!"

Pikachu nodded, understanding. "Yeah, that's gonna be tough to control…" He smiled. "Don't worry about me Ash, I'm pretty sure I can fight without your guidance and take on one of those overgrown puppies by myself, I've had enough experience to be able to do that already," he said confidently, not seeming to care that the Houndoom and Mightyena growled at him threateningly for regarding them so lowly and insulting them.

Latios, not wanting to be left behind by Pikachu's bold claims, quickly spoke up. "Really? I'm sure I can also fight without Ash's guidance, and I'd easily beat two of them."

Pikachu glared at Latios. "Make that three of them."

Latios glared at Pikachu. "Make that four of them."

Pikachu narrowed his glare dangerously. "Make that five. I can beat them."

Latios narrowed his glare dangerously. "Make that six. I can beat them."

Ash, Larvitar and Phanpy sweatdropped collectively at the two's argument. Pidgeot blinked and looked between the two arguing rivals and the enemy Pokémon. "How are you two planning on fighting five and six of them each if there are only nine of them in total?" Pidgeot asked confusedly. "We'd be lacking opponents then."

Latios and Pikachu quickly looked at the enemy and noted Pidgeot was right. "Darn," Pikachu mumbled. "Sorry Latios, you'll have to sit this one out. I can handle it."

Latios shook his head. "No! You'll only get in my way; I've got it just fine."

One of the Houndoom, apparently the biggest and strongest one, barked at them angrily. "Stop disgracing us! We'll show you how weak you all are next to us!" He taunted furiously, small embers flying from his muzzle.

Pikachu grinned at Latios, completely ignoring that the Houndoom had spoken to him. "Alright then, try to keep up with me."

Latios rolled his eyes. "It's you who should be trying to keep up."

The Alpha Houndoom growled in annoyance, a pair of angry veins appearing on his forehead at the fact his threat had been completely ignored. "Oh these little idiots…" he mumbled, pissed off.

Latios turned to Ash. "Think you can focus on two opponents?" He asked his trainer.

Ash nodded. "Yeah, that's considerably easier."

Latios smiled. "Alright, Pikachu and I will take on seven of them, who fights three and who takes on four we'll decide later."

Pikachu glared at the eon dragon as he clearly heard in his tone of voice that he was planning on being the one to fight four. "I'll fight more," Pikachu declared.

Latios rolled his eyes. "Alright alright, let's just fight all seven of them together, okay?" He asked. Pikachu nodded in agreement, so he continued. "Larvitar and Phanpy are not only the weakest, but also the least experienced and youngest of all of us; let them fight just one of them together guided by you Ash. That makes eight… Pidgeot can have the last."

Pidgeot glared at him, offended. "I was a flock leader for over a year, I fought countless battles against powerful opponents, way bigger enemies and outnumbering odds all against me to defend my protégés. I've trained endlessly awaiting the day my trainer came back and you think I can only fight _one_ of them?" She asked angrily.

Latios flew a few feet back from her outburst, holding his claws out. "Hey let me finish! We'll leave you the biggest guy, the Camerupt. Ash wants to train with you to get used to fighting with you again, we'll leave you the biggest opponent for that, and you'll fight with Ash guiding you to accomplish that."

Pidgeot paused when she heard that. "Oh, I get the strongest one? Neat." She nodded. "Okay."

Latios rolled his eyes. "Sheesh, females."

Pidgeot glanced at the dragon for a second after hearing his comment, but she dropped the matter quickly and focused on the opponents. She blinked. "Why do they all seem so angry?"

The Houndoom leader would have face-pawed if he could have anatomically done it. "Well, because all of you have been ignoring us you feather-bag!" He screamed angrily. "Can't you have some decency and freaking _pay attention to us_?" He roared.

Latios chuckled. "Look who's trying to talk about decency," he commented sarcastically.

Pidgeot tilted her head at the Team Magma Pokémon. "Oh, wait, you were talking?"

The Team Magma Pokémon growled indignantly. "Yes, you sack of feathers!" The leader roared.

Pikachu chuckled. "Aw, how cute... He's angry."

Pidgeot shrugged. "Eh, petty insults won't anger me. You remind me so much of that bothersome Fearow that always tried to bully my flock. I beat him up every time, you're as pathetic as he was," She said calmly. The Houndoom glared at her.

"We'll make you eat those words!" A Mightyena retorted angrily.

Pidgeot again didn't look bothered by the threat. "You're more than welcome to try if you want to," she said, her voice brimming with confidence. The Mightyena growled threateningly at her.

Latios laughed. "What are those tattered rags you're all wearing supposed to be?"

The Houndoom leader growled in annoyance at what he just heard. "They're… custom designed… battle armors…" He muttered angrily, shaking from rage.

Pikachu, Pidgeot and Latios laughed raucously. Ash shook his head; amused Pidgeot was getting into taunting the Team Magma Pokémon and seemed to be doing well. Phanpy and Larvitar looked between the enemy Pokémon and their aunt and uncles and decided not to join into the older Pokémon trash-talk, that and the mean Pokémon looked scary. Finally Pikachu regained his breath long enough to talk. "A-Armor? Are you serious? Are you scared of taking a hit or something?" He questioned, barely holding the laughs back.

Latios nodded in agreement. "You all look _very _stupid in those worn-out rags."

"Very much so," Pidgeot agreed. The three laughed harder.

A Mightyena growled. "They're not stupid!"

Another Houndoom nodded. "We look badass!"

"And cool!" Another Houndoom seconded.

The Lead Houndoom smirked, agreeing. "And very awesome."

"And very girly, scared and weak," Pidgeot added after he finished.

"Take that back!" A Mightyena barked in anger.

Pidgeot narrowed her piercing eyes at him. "Make me," she dared the canine Pokémon.

"With pleasure…" The Mightyena growled sadistically as he stepped forward while snarling. Pidgeot squawked and spread her wings widely to the sides, talons scratching the ground as she got into an aggressive stance, suddenly appearing to make herself a lot bigger and more dangerously intimidating than she already was. The Mightyena yelped in fear and hid behind the Houndoom leader, cowering. "You handle her boss," he said fearfully.

The Houndoom leader growled at Pidgeot, and didn't back off like the underling just did. "How dare you insult our awesome battle armor, we'll make you pay for that! You will now experience firsthand the might of Team Magma! We will be-"

Pikachu snorted. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, are you gonna bark all day, little puppy? Or are you actually going to bite?" Pikachu asked, interrupting him and then flashing a toothy grin. All the Team Magma Pokémon growled in anger at him, and only growled more in frustration when they saw he wasn't the least bit intimidated by them.

The Team Magma Grunts laughed. "See, our Pokémon have yours cowering!" The confident grunt boasted, not really having a clue what was going on between the Pokémon.

Ash blinked. "Uh, actually mine are much better at trash-talking than yours."

"Lies!" The woman Grunt shouted indignantly.

Ash ignored her and instead looked at Latios. "Be careful… it's seven against two…"

Latios grinned. "Tell Pikachu to be careful, he needs it more."

Pikachu laughed. "Latios, Ash was very right in telling you that first." He chuckled at him.

Ash shook his head in amusement. "So, how do we separate them? Doubt they'll follow _our_ idea of fighting them."

"Not very hard actually," Pikachu said back.

"Yeah," Latios agreed. "Leave it to me."

"_Us_," Pikachu corrected. Latios rolled his eyes.

Pikachu quickly darted forward and jumped into the air. With a mighty cry he released a powerful Thunderbolt at the Pokémon in front of them.

The Houndoom, seeing the impressive power behind the attack, sidestepped the electrical blast along with the humans, splitting the group as they all dodged to the side it was most convenient for them, isolating the Camerupt, a Mightyena and one of the grunts on one side of the electrical attack and the rest of the group on the other.

Latios took a deep breath and fired a potent DragonBreath towards the isolated group, forcing them out of the road and also further separating them from the main group. Both him and Pikachu cut off their attacks and darted forward until they were between each group, effectively separating them.

"Damn! How did they do that! It was all too fast!" The confident grunt cursed, now cut off from the main Team Magma group and only having his Camerupt and Mightyena with him. He looked at the main group and growled at the sight of Latios and Pikachu in the way, meaning there was no way he could effectively rejoin them. He turned to look at the side, and saw Ash and the three Pokémon with him approaching. "I can't try and break through the Latios and Pikachu… if I do the kid would attack me too. I need to play their separate fight game and focus on the kid's Pokémon," he murmured. He gave the rest of the Team a glance, seeing Latios and Pikachu charging and attacking them head on. If he wanted to help, he knew he had to defeat Ash first. He returned his look at Ash and forgot Latios and Pikachu at the moment, surely the rest of the team could handle them, right?

The Mightyena and Camerupt stepped forward, ready for battle with Ash. Pidgeot laughed when she saw the Mightyena, the same she had scared earlier. "Cute," she commented sarcastically, glaring at him.

The canine Pokémon backed off nervously from the very terrifying avian. The Camerupt scuffed. "Sissy," he mumbled.

The confident grunt glared at Ash. "I'm gonna enjoy making you cry, little baby. Go back to your momma."

Ash laughed. "I'm not scared of you, you're a crook I'm turning over to justice! Pidgeot, get ready, you'll fight the Camerupt thing. Kids, let's get that Mightyena," he said, preparing for the battle. His three present Pokémon nodded.

"I'm ready Daddy!" Phanpy chimed, eager to fight and prove to his adoptive father how strong he was.

Larvitar nodded. "Me too," he said, not as enthusiastically as his 'older brother' had said, but still ready to fight for his adoptive father as well.

The Mightyena and Camerupt looked at them oddly, wondering why they had called the human 'Daddy' but quickly dropped the matter, it wasn't important. "Careful with the Pidgeot, she's tough," the Mightyena advised the Camerupt, though in reality he wouldn't admit he was _very _glad he was fighting two young kids.

The Camerupt didn't look scared by the Mightyena's warning. "Meh… Sissy Pokémon no compare to Camerupt, Camerupt strong… Camerupt win!"

The confident grunt grinned darkly. "Camerupt, roast them all with a Flamethrower!" He shouted, starting off the battle against Ash.

Ash was ready for the attack, not looking surprised. "Larvitar, use Dig! Phanpy, follow him underground! Pidgeot, counter Camerupt's attack with an Air Slash!"

Larvitar quickly dived forward, using his front paws to quickly dig a hole and disappear underground, and Phanpy followed after him immediately. Pidgeot dug her talons in the ground to get a firm grip and then flapped her large wings with astounding power, sending a pair of wind blades towards Camerupt, who spat a stream of flames from his mouth.

The two attacks collided, and to the Magma agent's surprise, Pidgeot's wind blade cut through the flamethrower with alarming ease. "Dammit, Rock Tomb!" he shouted. The Camerupt rose on his hind legs and stomped, causing a large boulder to emerge from the ground in front of him.

Pidgeot's dual blade collided with the rock, and dissipated. The Eruption Pokémon blinked nervously when the rock split in half and the top part slid to the floor, landing with a heavy thud. "Meh," he said, not sounding very convincing.

Mightyena rolled his eyes. "Told you to be careful!" He barked, and paused. "Wait, where are the other two?"

As if on cue, the ground below Mightyena exploded outwards and Larvitar emerged, punching him in the stomach, which was unprotected by armor. He was sent backwards a few feet, yelping in pain. Ash smirked, knowing he was not done. "Phanpy, use Rollout," he ordered.

Phanpy complied, curling up inside the hole and rolling forward, using the exit of the tunnel as a ramp. He emerged with a speed boost and smashed into the Mightyena, sending him flying and smashing him into a tree, the armor softening both hits and minimizing the damage taken.

The grunt glared at Ash. "It's gonna take a lot more than that to take out my Pokémon! You'll pay for that kid! Camerupt, roast that Pidgeot with a Lava Plume!" The Camerupt roared loudly, his eyes flashing red for a second as the temperature around him began to rise and the two rocky lumps on his back began to spew smoke and embers.

"Pidgeot, use Aerial Ace!" Ash shouted, pointing towards Camerupt. Pidgeot flapped her wings and took flight, quickly aiming towards the Eruption Pokémon.

The Camerupt roared, its lumps erupting violently and a huge plume of flames blasting in every direction. Pidgeot saw the blast of fire but didn't seem too alarmed. Her eyes narrowed as she gave a mighty flap of her wings and flew faster, wind streaks appearing all around her as she sped through the flames and hit the Camerupt in the head, the quick movements of the air around her protecting her from the fire attack. Just as quickly as she hit she flapped her wings and flew up to avoid spending too long in Camerupt's attack.

The Eruption Pokémon roared in anger at the hard hit, the armor covering his head cracking slightly. Pidgeot emerged from the smoke the flames had made. "That was a good hit!" Ash complemented, smirking. Pidgeot nodded in agreement.

"Shut it kid!" The Grunt said angrily.

Ash laughed. "Larvitar, Rock Smash!" He shouted. Larvitar nodded and ran towards the Mightyena, one of his arms covered in a white veil of power. Mightyena yelped, seeing the incoming attack. He braced himself and turned to his side, trusting his armor to protect him.

Larvitar punched the armor _hard._ It cracked severely under the hit, and Mightyena was pushed back a few feet from the sheer force Larvitar had put into the punch. "Bite!" Ash shouted next.

The Grunt growled. "Mightyena, use Shadow Ball!" He screamed desperately.

Mightyena nodded, and began to prepare to use the Ghost-type move… and then he felt the biggest pain he had ever felt. He yelped and screamed. Larvitar had bitten his tail. "Aaaahhhh!" The Mightyena screamed, trying to run away but he was stopped abruptly in his tracks and landed flat on his belly as Larvitar was too heavy to move, and that only hurt his tail more. "Ahhh! Get him off! Get him off!" He wailed pathetically as he pawed at the ground. He looked at Camerupt. "Heeeeelp meeee!"

The Camerupt snorted. "Sissy," he commented, walking towards him.

Ash smirked. "Pidgeot, use Peck," he said simply. Pidgeot nodded and flew towards Camerupt and started pecking him in spots that weren't covered by the armor. She kept flying over him, constantly bombarding him with pecks with her powerful and sharp beak all over his body.

"Ack! Ow! You sissy, get off!" The Camerupt said angrily, shaking and struggling as hard as he could to intimidate Pidgeot so she stopped pecking him, but if anything, she only pecked _harder. _"Camerupt mad!" He roared. Pidgeot pecked him harder. This time some of her pecks drew a drop or two of blood. "Arrgghhh!" Camerupt roared out, pissed off.

Ash laughed. "Phanpy, rollout! Larvitar, swing Mightyena into the rollout!" He ordered the two youngsters.

Phanpy nodded and curled into a tight ball, and rolled towards Larvitar. The Rock Skin Pokémon tightened his bite, causing Mightyena to cry, and spun on his feet, dragging the canine Pokémon along with the movement and swung him directly into Phanpy's attack, doubling the force of the impact and shattering some of the armor completely. Mightyena cried in pain as he was sent crashing into the Grunt, causing both to topple over. "Aaahh!" Both of them cried.

The kids laughed. "Take that meanie!" Phanpy cheered, jumping up and down on the spot.

Larvitar nodded, again not as enthusiastic as his adoptive older brother, but still happy. "Yep," he said simply.

The Eruption Pokémon had finally lost it with Pidgeot. "Camerupt smash!" Camerupt roared, rising himself onto his hind legs and stomping down furiously, sending a powerful fissure running across the ground below Pidgeot as he used Earth Power. The fissure trembled and released a mighty shine of yellow energy as the power of the earth burst through in a spectacularly powerful attack.

Overall it was an extremely devastating attack… which had zero effect on Pidgeot because she was flying a few feet off the ground. "Uh… ooookaaaay…" She muttered, having no idea what to say about the Camerupt. Larvitar, Phanpy and Ash looked in confusion at the cracks glowing with energy running across in a line from Camerupt and flowing underneath Pidgeot, who kept flapping her wings to float over them.

"Huh… Camerupt not smash? Camerupt smash harder!" Camerupt roared angrily when he saw his awesome attack had no effect on Pidgeot.

Pidgeot laughed. "Not a very bright one? Ground-type moves don't affect me. Now, it's _my _turn." Pidgeot's right wing began to glow brightly as it turned solid white, hardening to steel as she used Steel Wing. She shifted her weight and brought her wing downwards, smashing it into Camerupt's head, shattering the low-quality armor and hitting the Pokémon's skull.

"Aaaaaahhhh! Camerupt in pain!" Camerupt roared, thrashing about.

Pidgeot laughed. "Camerupt need talking lessons!"

Ash laughed. "Great work Pidgeot!"

Pidgeot nodded happily. "Thanks!"

Phanpy looked hurt at him. "No praise for me?" He asked in a sad and small voice.

Ash smiled. "Of course, you're great too! You too Larvitar!" Ash said to the two infants. Phanpy nodded eagerly and skipped about, thrilled at the praise from his daddy. Larvitar nodded.

Pidgeot flew and landed in front of Ash with her back turned to him, looking at their opponents and seeing the Mightyena and grunt standing slowly and shakily, and the Camerupt had stopped thrashing and was now glaring at them angrily. "Heads up Ash, we're not done yet," Pidgeot warned, but her voice still brimming with strength and unbending confidence.

Ash nodded. "I know. Let's keep going. Ready?" He called out enthusiastically. His three current Pokémon nodded and responded with their affirmative cries.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Team Magma squad along with their five Houndoom and two Mightyena was trying to fight Latios and Pikachu. Their battle had so far been more chaotic than the one Ash had been fighting against the single grunt with his Camerupt and Mightyena. After a while the grunts had realized that trying to command seven Pokémon was way too complicated, and that with five of them being Houndoom commanding a specific one was hard, so they settled on just sitting back and telling their Pokémon to do whatever they deemed right to beat Latios and Pikachu, an order the Alpha Houndoom found very appealing and he was more than eager to comply. Speaking of him…

"Get back here you pathetic wimp!" The Alpha Houndoom roared angrily, chasing Pikachu and spitting a powerful Flamethrower at him. Pikachu jumped acrobatically over the gush of flames, easily avoiding it.

Pikachu laughed mockingly. "Is that the best you've got?" He taunted, grinning as he landed.

"Oh, hell no!" The Houndoom shouted, running towards Pikachu surprisingly fast. His muzzle glowing brightly as he lunged at the Electric-type with a Crunch attack.

Pikachu sidestepped quickly, evading the Fire and Dark type's attack. However, the canine quickly whirled around, preparing a Flamethrower. Pikachu reacted fast, his cheeks sparkling as he countered the flames with his electricity. The attacks collided and blew up, holding a perfect stalemate between them. "You'll need more than that to beat me!" Pikachu cried as he ran forward, using a Quick Attack to close the distance between him the Dark Pokémon so fast that there was no chance to react.

Pikachu collided against him, pushing back a few inches but otherwise not moving the larger Pokémon. The Alpha Houndoom tried responding by throwing a Bite attack to the Electric-type, but Pikachu grabbed the armor firmly, and used it as leverage to push himself up and slap the Houndoom's face with an Iron Tail attack. The shining steel-hard appendage hit hard, echoing harshly across the woods.

The Alpha Houndoom yelped in pain and was pushed to the side, front paws clasping his aching muzzle from the mouse's attack.

With the Houndoom temporarily out of the way, the two Mightyena ran towards Pikachu, their jaws shining brightly as both of them prepared a double Crunch attack. Pikachu grinned as he saw the reckless head on attack while his cheeks sparkled violently with electricity. "Oh crap," one of the Mightyena muttered.

Pikachu nodded. "Yep," he said cheerily, and then he released a potent Thunder attack, shocking both Mightyena with a powerful bolt and causing both of them to cry out in pain. Pikachu heard a twig snap behind him and saw another of the Houndoom jumping at him, its muzzle covered in flames as it used Fire Fang.

However, before it got the chance to get close enough to Pikachu to connect the attack, Latios rammed into it with a powerful Tackle, making the Houndoom yelp in pain and be sent flying to the side, the armor softening the hit only just a little bit. The Dark Pokémon skid along the floor, wincing in pain. "Careful, I'm not gonna be watching your back _all_ the time," Latios taunted his friend, smirking confidently.

Pikachu chuckled as his electrical attack against the two Mightyena ended. "Oh yeah?" He quickly ran towards Latios, jumped and then used the dragon's neck as leverage to jump farther towards the dragon's right, his tail shining brightly as he used another Iron Tail. He swung the hardened tail and successfully intercepted a Dark Pulse that had been aimed towards Latios, cancelling the Dark-type attack easily in midair. "Neither am I going to be watching _yours_ all the time," Pikachu said back as he landed.

Latios smiled. "Of course."

The Alpha Houndoom finally recovered and along with two other Houndoom, spat a powerful triple flamethrower at them with as much power as they could. Latios' eyes glowed as he created a powerful sphere of psychic energies around him and Pikachu, shielding them from all three attacks effectively. Latios' eyes shined a shade stronger as the shields grew and deflected the fire attacks easily.

The Alpha Houndoom growled. "Stop hiding behind that stupid shield and face us you cowards!" He barked out, glaring at the two Pokémon. The two Mightyena and two of the Houndoom walked to his side, forming a straight line.

Latios shrugged. "Okay." He dropped the shield and charged at them. The five Pokémon immediately looked nervous, clearly not expecting that. Latios fired a stream of white flames as he used DragonBreath, forcing the canine Pokémon to scatter quickly to avoid his attack.

Pikachu quickly picked his target. He ran towards one of the Mightyena and used Quick Attack to speed up his movements dramatically. His tail began to glow a bright white as he readied another Iron Tail attack. The Mightyena barely had time to react, its keen hearing barely alerting it of the incoming attack. With no time to do anything he braced himself for impact.

Pikachu smashed the Quick Attack-boosted Iron Tail into the Dark-type's side very harshly, ripping off a good chunk of the armor and sending the Mightyena skidding several feet to the side, crying out in pain. Almost as soon as he was hit, the feeling of intense heat approaching warned him of the incoming Flamethrower from behind.

Pikachu's cheeks sparkled as he released a powerful Thunder Attack, enveloping his form in a tower of electricity that shot skywards and illuminated the woods that they had turned into a battlefield in a bright yellow light. The stream of flames grazed the electrical attack but was unable to penetrate it, leaving Pikachu completely unharmed.

Latios quickly charged towards the Houndoom that was attacking Pikachu, knowing that its focus was set on the Electric-Type. His wings glowed as he used Steel Wing, and with an extremely fast pass he hit the Houndoom before it reacted to what was happening. The demonic canine cried out as he was sent flying along the grassy floor of the woods until he crashed into a tree.

Pikachu quickly turned now that his attacker had been dealt with, and quickly charged at the Alpha Houndoom. He released a powerful Thunderbolt directly at him, but the strongest Houndoom didn't flinch in the sight of the attack. He opened his muzzle and fired a Dark Pulse, the beam of black and purple rings almost seeming to fade into the dark night.

Both attacks collided and exploded brightly, outlining the battle all around them. Latios flew above the blast, took aim, and quickly fired a DragonBreath at the group of Houndoom behind the leader, hitting them head on and causing some yelps of pain to echo over the forest. One of the Mightyena that hadn't been hit aimed up at the dragon and returned fire with a Shadow Ball, which Latios easily dodged. "Ha!" He laughed. "Gotta work on your aim!"

The Alpha Houndoom growled in anger. "Attack the psychic!" He roared.

All of the Houndoom took deep breaths and spat a barrage of Flamethrowers towards the eon dragon. Latios smirked and flew around the attacks, easily dodging all of them with grace and practiced ease. "You've got to do better than that!" Latios taunted. His body began to glow as he charged up a Luster Purge, which he fired towards the Houndoom.

The Alpha Houndoom laughed. "Stupid Psychic, we're dark-types!" He taunted back as the Luster Purge collided against them, leaving them unharmed despite the rather impressive blast that the dragon's attack had made. However, they were all forced to shut their eyes from the intense light the attack generated. "Ha! See?" The Houndoom said as he slowly opened his eyes once the blinding light died down. "We're alright!"

Pikachu, who was behind them, grinned. "Not for long." The group of Houndoom yelped and tried to move, but it was too late. All five of them were consumed inside a massive pillar of electricity courtesy of Pikachu's Thunder attack.

Latios chuckled. "My Luster Purge was only to cover Pikachu's movement, not attack you."

The two grunts watching the battle growled lowly, seeing their seven Pokémon not doing very well in the battle. "Come on! Do something!" The woman grunt screamed at them. "It's seven against two, dammit!"

The superstitious one looked nervous, as usual. "But we're jinxed, and one of those two happens to be a Legendary…"

The woman rolled her eyes. "Oh shut up."

The two Mightyena quickly charged at Pikachu, orbs of dark energies glistening in their muzzles. Seconds later a double Shadow Ball attack was fired towards Pikachu. Latios's eyes glowed, using his psychic powers to tear both Shadow Balls apart in midair, exploding them prematurely.

Pikachu's electrical attack ended, causing the five Houndoom to drop to the floor, shaking slightly from the massive attack. "You two are next!" Pikachu shouted, charging towards the two Mightyena that had been trying to sneak behind him while he was shocking the Houndoom.

One of the two charged at Pikachu, trying to tackle the Electric-type. Pikachu grinned as his tail hardened to Steel-like properties, glowing a bright white. He took a spectacular leap, evading the Mightyena's tackle. As he did so, his tail smashed against it harshly, causing it to cry out in pain and its armor to crack slightly.

The second Mightyena took a deep breath. A Shadow Ball began to form inside its muzzle as it prepared to attack Pikachu. It fired the attack, sending the orb of shadows towards the smaller Electric mouse Pokémon. Pikachu spun quickly, slashing the attack with his Iron Tail and deflecting it upwards, and making the Mightyena gasp. Pikachu's cheeks sparkled and the Mightyena's ears fell to the back of his head. "Oh crap…" it muttered.

It was shocked with a tremendous bolt of electricity. The other Mightyena cringed from the sheer force evident in the attack. "Ouch…" it commented quietly.

As Pikachu shocked the poor Mightyena senseless, Latios was fighting the Houndoom. A pair of Houndoom cried out in pain as Latios blasted them away with a powerful DragonBreath attack. "What's wrong? Can't keep up with me?" Latios taunted.

"Piss off!" The Alpha Houndoom shouted angrily, firing a powerful Dark Pulse from his muzzle towards the psychic dragon.

Latios smirked, once again dodging the attack acrobatically with a very showy flight maneuver. "You missed!"

"Aaarrhh!" The Alpha Houndoom screamed in frustration. "Get him!"

One of the Houndoom charged towards Latios, maw beginning to shine darkly as he prepared a powerful Crunch attack. Latios smirked, his eyes glowing brightly as he used a Psychic attack. The Houndoom obviously didn't seem alarmed as it was a Dark-type. However, to all the rest of the Houndoom's surprise, he stopped in midair.

"What? I'm a Dark-type! Stupid psychics aren't supposed to be able to touch me!" he wailed desperately as he struggled against the psychic powers.

Latios nodded. "Correct, but I'm not grabbing you. I can't." He smiled. "I'm grabbing the silly armor you're wearing. It's something I learned from my trainer back at a tournament when I was fighting a Shedinja, that a Pokémon may be immune to psychic powers, but…" he grinned darkly as he grabbed the armor with more force and began to press it against the Houndoom, causing it to struggle and cry in pain as his body was compressed by the armor, choking sounds began to be heard from the Houndoom as his ability to breathe was cut off by the squeeze. "I can affect everything _around _said immune-to-psychics Pokémon. A Dark-type's immunity doesn't protect it from everything _around _it, now does it?" Latios finished.

The Houndoom cried out harder in pain. He swore that if this continued his chest was going to cave in. "H-h-hel-help m-me!" he choked out in a very pained voice.

The Alpha Houndoom rushed forward quickly and then seemingly disappeared. Not even a second later Latios cried out in pain as he was hit with a direct Faint Attack, losing his grip on the Houndoom's armor. The demonic canine dropped to the ground, quivering and gasping, numerous pains wracking through his body.

Latios growled, he grabbed the Alpha Houndoom with his claws, causing him to yelp in terror, and then spat an extremely potent DragonBreath right into him, sending him flying into a tree and blasting the canine through it. "Oww…" The Dark Pokémon muttered in pain. The sound of something splitting and ripping immediately made him jolt up to a standing position. He barked lowly and ran to the side as the tree he had been blasted through fell onto where he had been.

Pikachu turned to Latios. "You okay?" He asked, a concerned tone in his voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It was just a light hit," Latios answered.

Pikachu nodded. "Okay. Are you ready to keep beating up the puppies?"

Latios smirked. "Yep. This is fun."

The Alpha Houndoom stepped forward, flanked by the other six canine Pokémon. "Beating us up, what are you talking about? We'll win!"

Pikachu looked at their clear injuries, their tired looks and cracked armors. "Yeah, sure you will," he said sarcastically.

The Alpha turned to the three Houndoom that were in the best shape, excluding himself and the one Latios had tried to crush with its own armor. "Attack him with Faint Attack; we'll follow after you three."

The three Houndoom nodded and charged at Latios, ready to use the Dark Type move. Latios smirked, and his eyes glowed. None of the three Houndoom saw the tree that batted them away harshly coming, sending them a few dozen feet away flying and sprawled them across the grass. Latios laughed as the tree hovered over him. "What? Am I too tough for you all?" Latios questioned. The remaining Pokémon growled lowly and backed off a few steps. Their two trainers narrowed their eyes, not liking how badly the battle was going.

The tree was hurled at the remaining Pokémon, who all tensed and prepared for the attack. Pikachu quickly ran forwards, using the flying tree as leverage to jump higher into the air while his cheeks began to sparkle brightly as he prepared a potent Thunder attack.

The Alpha growled in anger as his eyes narrowed at the two attacks, wondering how to stop the two seemingly unstoppable Pokémon.

…

While Latias freed the hostages and hunted down the last grunt and the battle between Ash and the grunts carried on, the rest of the Magma squad were in a hurry to get to their destination.

"Damn, getting around that kid was troublesome!" A grunt muttered as they ran towards the Oldale ruins, settling on getting there as fast as possible since they didn't know how long their teammates would last against the kid with the Latios.

Tabitha nodded. "He is a minor setback; we must hurry and open the Oldale Ruins! His intervention won't matter as long as we fulfill the objective and uncover the secrets of the place."

Professor Alden growled lowly as he ran too, knowing that if he refused to give in to their demands they'd attack him with their Houndoom. As far as he knew the keys to the Oldale Ruins had been lost ages ago, so he was fairly confident they would not be able to open the sacred place, but the worry was still there. _'I hope they don't open it… they can't have those keys… can they?'_ The archeologist thought to himself, panting slightly as he ran.

After a bit of running they reached the Oldale ruins, completely dark due to the night. Only the faint glistening of the moon provided any form of light. They ran up towards the sealed entrance of the chamber quickly. Professor Alden followed them reluctantly, not wanting those scary Houndoom to harm him. Tabitha grinned darkly. "We're here…" He reached for his visor and pressed a small button near the ear, activating a communications link. "Helicopter, lights up."

Alden closed his eyes in a daze as a massive beam of light illuminated the ruins, coming from two large searchlights in the front of a big pitch black tandem-rotor helicopter situated beside the ruins, the large logo of Team Magma proudly painted on its side. "There you go, Field Commander Tabitha," the helicopter's pilot answered through the intercom, and quickly shut the link off so he could laugh at Tabitha's name without getting scolded.

"You're going to open that, Alden," Tabitha ordered, pointing towards the door.

Professor Alden growled, and in a final brave effort to keep the villains from the wondrous secrets of the chamber, decided to play his chances and ignore all his fears. "No. Harm me if you wish, because if you do then you'll never open that door. I am not going to give you the secrets of that chamber. And it won't be long before the Latios kid comes here and beats you all up."

Tabitha laughed. "Feisty are we? I like it. We'll do things my way then. Hostages are such good bargaining chips sometimes." He pressed a button on his visor, activating a communications link. "Team Magma agents, attack the Pokémon Center hostages. I've always wondered what happens if you use Flamethrower on a group of people with no way out, and it seems it's time to find that out."

Professor Alden froze, his eyes widened in horror at what he just heard the villain say. "No! I'll open it! Call them off!" He screamed desperately. Putting the lives of others in danger was something he wasn't going to play with, he had partially forgotten they could still do that.

Tabitha laughed. "Uh, cancel that last order. I'll have to find out another day." He said through the comlink and then turned to Alden after turning it off. "Glad you'll cooperate without us needing to get drastic."

Professor Alden gulped. "Bu-but… There are four keys that are needed to open it, without them, nothing can be done," the archeologist warned. "And they are thought to have been lost across the eons of time; no one knows who made them or what happened to them, or if they even existed in the first place."

Tabitha nodded and motioned to one of the grunts. The grunt stepped forward, holding out a small box and the tablet they took from the archeologist's room. "I know we need those keys. You said that everything needed to open this chamber is in this little stone tablet."

Alden reluctantly nodded. "Yes it is… but without the keys it's of no use."

Tabitha grinned darkly and grabbed the tablet and little box from the grunt's hands and held them out to Alden. The box had a crystal lid, enabling the contents to be seen. Inside, there were four small perfectly spherical stones, each of a different color. "Well, I hope these make up for it," Tabitha commented.

Alden's eyes widened. "The keys! How did you get them? They've been lost for centuries!"

Tabitha grinned darkly. "Team Magma is a lot more influential than you think; we know a lot more about the world and its Legendaries, as well as the humans of the ancient times. These keys are magical, according to folklore they were crafted by humans of the ancient past. How? I don't know… However I do know that they open that door, but I don't know the order they need to be placed in or how. That's where you'll help, Alden."

The other grunt nodded. "Yeah, you know the movies, whenever you try to open an ancient place and get it wrong somehow; it usually collapses, or a trap activates and kills you… or it plain curses you."

Tabitha rolled his eyes. "Shut up, get ready to move in."

Alden reluctantly grabbed the small box and the tablet. He didn't want to open the ruins, but if he refused or got it wrong on purpose, they'd harm the people in the Pokémon Center and himself. With no choice left, he decided to open the ruins and hope for the best. "Alright…" He looked at the door silently and then began to read the tablet.

Tabitha began to grow impatient. "Well?" He pressed on.

Professor Alden nodded slowly, clearly hating himself for what he was about to do. He looked at the four keys, and then looked at the indentations arranged in a triangle. He grabbed the first of the keys, the red one and placed it on the left bottom indentation, and then he grabbed the blue key and inserted it on the bottom right indentation. "These two, red and blue, represent the Earth and Water… The green one represents the Sky…" he mumbled as he inserted the green key into another indentation, this one at the top of the triangle. He grabbed the last Key, a yellow one. "This last one… goes at the center, it represents the world… the balance between the earth, the oceans and the sky…"Alden said, placing the last key in place.

Tabitha nodded. "So that's the correct order?"

Alden sighed sadly. "Yes…"

Tabitha grinned. "Good," he said simply, then turned to look at the ruins expectantly. The ground shook slightly as the large metal door began to glow, and as if by magic, it began to slide backwards on its own, opening the chamber.

Professor Alden's eyes widened slightly. "Wow… it… opened on its own… how? I thought we had to push the damn thing."

Tabitha chuckled slightly. "The marvels made by the humans of the ancient times are more wondrous than what we give them credit for. That's one of the many investigations of Team Magma, discovering the true power humanity once had…aura, magic, psychics… rumors swirl around everywhere," Tabitha answered. He motioned to the two grunts next to him. "Photograph and record the entire place. If there is any information in there regarding our interests, I want to know, and hurry up, remember we've got to evade the Latios kid."

"Yes sir!" Both grunts said, saluting. They both took out digital cameras and rushed inside the chamber.

Tabitha smirked, walking towards the chamber. "What secrets do you hide…" He murmured. "Houndoom, keep watch over Alden. If he moves, attack him," he commanded to the obedient grunt's Dark-type. Without saying another word, Tabitha entered the chamber, taking a deep breath as he saw what it held.

He looked around, activating his visor. "Incredible…" Tabitha mumbled. All the walls were covered in a very rich and complex writing system, carved out on the walls all over the place. "Interesting…" Tabitha muttered as he saw all the stone-carved encryptions and images lining the walls. Nearby were the two grunts that were still with him, quickly photographing and recording the entire place. "Team Magma's science and archeology division's gonna take a while to decipher all this…Hurry up!" he hissed at his subordinates.

"Yes sir!" Both grunts said, trying to document the entire place faster.

Tabitha walked around, examining the chamber's side walls, until he came to the very back of it. There he saw a massive drawing of something that immediately caught his interest. "I want as many images regarding this one from as many angles as possible; this may hold an important hint!" He ordered. Both grunts nodded and walked up to him.

Before all three of them was a carved drawing that lined the entire back wall of the chamber, easily dimming out all the rest of the content inside it. The drawing depicted a human in the bottom part of it, holding what seemed to be a staff while his arms were spread wide, and surrounding him were three spherical carvings. Each sphere had a small inscription beside it. Directly in front of the human, facing each orb directly in perfect alignment, were three very well-detailed carvings of massive Pokémon, whose size was colossal when compared to the human. Each Pokémon also had several lines of text beside it. All over the drawing were numerous inscriptions and directions.

Tabitha smirked. "Bingo! I guess this confirms the existence of the three sacred orbs…" He paused and looked at one of the drawings in specific, a bipedal Pokémon with massive claws and spikes lining its body. "The great god, Lord Groudon…" He bowed slightly. "Boss Maxie is gonna love this."

One of the grunts scowled, turning to see the Pokémon beside Groudon, an equally large whale-like Pokémon. "Lord Groudon, yeah… and there's that little bitch Kyogre…" he muttered.

Tabitha nodded. "Indeed, she is that. This may hold valuable information so we learn how these three Pokémon gods created the planet; oceans so large are a grave mistake. We must fix the mistakes the gods made when crafting the world, expand the lands to turn this into a better planet…" He declared, his gaze set firmly in the carvings.

He stepped forward, looking at the drawing. For some reason when he looked at the lone human facing the three Pokémon, a chill ran down his spine. Tabitha wondered, who was he? Just looking at the carving made the feel of malice around the human very apparent. He frowned when he noticed something else odd in the pictured human. He ran his hand over the image, and suddenly the three orbs carved around him released a small light, causing Tabitha to back up in surprise. The orb facing Groudon glowed blue, the orb facing Kyogre glowed red, and the orb facing the third Pokémon, an equally massive serpentine dragon, glowed green.

Right at the center of the drawing, a small patch of the wall fell down, revealing something stuck inside the wall, perfectly centered between the Human and the three Pokémon gods. "What the…" Tabitha muttered. He pulled at it, and the object came off.

"What's that commander?" One of the grunts asked, looking over his shoulder. He immediately photographed the place where they had found it.

Tabitha nodded to himself, chuckling darkly. "A stone tablet… but this one is very different from the one Alden had… I believe this holds the key to the next step to finding the ancient orbs…" He turned towards the exit. "Finish recording the entire place, I don't want a single square inch of the chamber not photographed. And hurry up!"

"Yes Field Commander Tabitha!" The two grunts saluted, giggled stupidly at his girl name, and then focused on finishing photographing the chamber.

Tabitha didn't pay attention to their mocking of his name as his mind was dead set on trying to interpret the tablet and what it meant, and that large drawing in the chamber and what connection they had… he believed Team Magma's goal was now one step closer to fruition…

* * *

><p><strong>Author Notes:<strong> Well, the chapter's finally done… Woohoo! This chapter was somewhat difficult to write. My main trouble was coordinating all scenes as I had happening all at the same time, it's the first time I've done this, I hope I did okay. =) For those of you who are wondering, yes I changed the order of the chamber keys and the contents of the chamber, why? Because I thought it was cooler my way. XD And also to enrich the plot I've set in motion.


	5. A Dark Night Concludes

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.**

_I only own the Fanfic itself and the plot, ideas and concepts of this story, A New Chance for Adventure, and its prequel, A New Chance at Life. _

"Speech"

_'Thoughts'_

_"Telepathy" _

**Author Notes:** Chapter 5! Ready and here! =)

**Chapter 5 - A Dark Night Concludes**

* * *

><p>As Ash and his Pokémon kept fighting across the Oldale Town woods against the Team Magma attack force, the Pokémon Center seemed to have been finally liberated, as it shined with electrical power once more. Even so, they weren't done yet as one lone Grunt was still active and capable of fighting.<p>

In the back of the Pokémon Center, the emergency back door was suddenly tackled down by a Houndoom clad in golden armor, skidding across a few feet in the dirt. "Perfect!" The Team Magma Grunt shouted to his Pokémon as he ran out of the building quickly. He looked around as he thought of his next objective. He had left his partner to deal with the strange psychic girl, and remembered his main duty was to knock out the electricity once more, so he quickly settled on what to do. He ran around the Pokémon Center, towards the front door on the other side of the building. "Almost there Houndoom, let's put this place in the dark again!" The Grunt said to his Pokémon. The Houndoom barked in agreement and nodded as it ran obediently beside its trainer.

As the Grunt was nearing the entrance, he grabbed his two other Pokéballs from his belt and hurled them forward. "Zangoose and Mightyena, come out!" He called as he threw the spheres. They burst open and both Pokémon were released in bright flashes of light. Like the rest of the Pokémon the villainous team had, both were clad in golden-colored samurai-style armor. The Team Magma Grunt pushed the front door of the Pokémon Center open violently and as he did so his Houndoom, Zangoose and Mightyena rushed to his side immediately, all of them in battle ready stances. "Alright all of you, get back to that storage room!" He shouted to all the people crowded around the counter where Nurse Joy was.

Nurse Joy glared at him, not flinching in the slightest at his threat, much to his surprise. "I don't think so. Give up. You've lost," Nurse Joy said coldly, a very odd tone coming from the usually warm and kind Pokémon nurse.

The Team Magma Grunt blinked for a second, surprised, and then laughed raucously at what she had said. "Oh, really? Says who, Miss Pretty Clone?" He asked mockingly.

"All of us say so," Janet spoke up angrily, glaring at him as well.

The Grunt laughed again. "Ah, you wimps? What are you gonna do to me? Send a hoard of Torchic to fight me?" He asked sarcastically, rolling his eyes and laughing harder. His three Pokémon laughed along with him. "You're all so pathetic."

May pouted, since she had a Torchic. "Hey!"

Janet smirked and grabbed a single Pokéball. "This time…" She began as all the trainers in the room began to grab Pokéballs as well, including May, who didn't want to be left behind. "Let's see if you're really as brave as you acted when it was dark and you had the element of surprise."

"Uhh…" The Team Magma Grunt said uneasily, starting to feel nervous as each trainer began to grab several Pokéballs. Now that the ones whose Pokémon were mostly fine had gotten them back from the nurse, and those who already had them were more willing to fight now that there was power, the amount of possible opponents looked staggering for the lone Grunt, who was only armed with three Pokémon. "This calls for a tactical retreat," The grunt said finally. "Let's go back to Field Commander Tabitha!" The Grunt then exclaimed in a poorly executed bravado voice, striking an impressively stupid pose as he did so, clearly trying (and failing) to save as much face as he could in the wake of his cowardly retreat. His three Pokémon nodded enthusiastically and followed him out of the Pokémon center, tails between their legs.

Janet laughed, putting her hand in front of her face as she did so to try and hold it in. "What a coward," she commented, shaking her head in amusement.

Nurse Joy nodded in agreement. "Typical of bad guys like him. We shouldn't let him escape, though. I've already called Officer Jenny, she's on her way from Petalburg City," she informed them all, walking around the counter. Some of the trainers nodded and followed her out of the Pokémon Center, the ones more confident to fight the villain, including Janet.

When they exited they expected the Grunt to already have gained a decent advantage, but to their surprise the Grunt was standing a dozen feet or so outside the main entrance, all three of his Pokémon growling fiercely. In front of him, in the Center's front courtyard, were a once-again disguised Latias and Bianca, standing beside each other.

Bianca laughed. "He was trying to escape? I didn't expect that, but it won't be happening."

Latias nodded. _"Neither did I, but at least out here it'll be easier to deal with him."_ She frowned. _"Sadly, all his Pokémon are out already. That leaves disarming him by taking his Pokéballs out of question."_

Janet's eyes widened in surprise. In the momentary surprise of the Grunt's intrusion to the lobby, she had completely forgotten that the twins had stayed to fight another one in the storage hallway. "I-it's the twins! They beat the other guy? Wow! But they have no Pokémon!" She cried, stuttering in surprise.

The Grunt glared at the two girls in shock. He certainly hadn't expected to find_ them _out here as he had been more expectant to see his comrade. "How?" He asked in shock, growling. "My partner should have dealt with you two troublesome brats!"

Bianca smirked confidently. Now that the fear and surprise of the sudden attack and the hostage situation had died down, these guys weren't really scary. "Other way around, actually, since _we_ dealt with him," she began, then raised her hand and pointed at him, her smirk widening. "And _you_ are next."

Latias raised an eyebrow at that. _"We dealt with him? Uh, I did everything Bianca," _she pointed out, stifling a mental giggle.

Bianca chuckled lowly so the Grunt didn't notice and thought her answer to the dragoness. _'I know, I'm just trying to sound tough. Plus, I stayed for…moral support.'_

"_Ah,"_ Latias said, smiling in amusement. _'It's okay, I wasn't complaining or anything, I was just commenting on it."_ Bianca nodded at her.

The Grunt looked at them angrily. "I don't know what you did to my squad mate, but I'm going to make sure you two are beat up for it!" He declared boldly. His three Pokémon stood in a line in front of him, ready for a fight, even if their opponents had no visible Pokémon out.

Bianca shook her head sadly and turned to look at the disguised Dragoness. "How about you teach him a really good lesson he won't be forgetting anytime soon, Latias?" She asked her best friend, smirking. Nurse Joy blinked and frowned. When she registered Ash Ketchum for the Hoenn League she had seen that on his active party was a Latias, but… could that girl be the Latias?

Latias nodded at her. _"He's definitely earned it for attacking people like that and putting you and everyone else in danger. But, there are humans outside the Pokémon center watching us. Would it be prudent to do so?" _She asked telepathically.

"Well, Latios revealed himself to thousands at the Silver Conference," Bianca pointed out. "I don't think it's too bad, plus, it's more important to deal with the threat now."

"_True,"_ Latias admitted after a moment's thought. _"I'll teach him a lesson for threatening to hurt you and everyone else,"_ she said fiercely, her eyes narrowing as she stepped forward.

"Hey, you're okay with battling, right?" Bianca asked, remembering that it wasn't exactly a favorable topic for the dragoness. "I'm thinking about having you beating him up and I haven't even thought of that, how rude of me," she said, frowning at her own disposition to have Latias battle without properly asking.

Latias smiled at Bianca and nodded once. _"Yes, I'm okay with it Bianca, you don't have to feel bad for staging me up to fight the guy, it's alright. I'm unhappy with fighting without a reason, but if it's to protect my friends. I'll fight with all I've got and I _will _be a dangerous opponent. Plus, I've changed Bianca, you admitted yourself when I defeated the first of these clowns in red back at the storeroom about how different I was now. I feel like I've grown up a little… from that little defenseless weakling I was back at Alto Mare to who I am now. Battling isn't something I should feel repulsed by; now that I've seen more than just Alto Mare I understand a bit more. Life is so different… I am still not a fan of battling…"_ She said to her best friend, and then threw a glare at the Team Magma Pokémon that made them take a step back, despite her being a human at the moment. _"But I understand sometimes it's something necessary, to protect those you care the most about!" _She finished, a motivated and proud tone to her telepathy.

Bianca nodded and smiled, feeling very happy and pleased for her friend. "Okay, Latias."

The Team Magma Grunt looked at her, wondering what she was for a second, recalling that earlier she had made herself look just like the squad sub-leader almost perfectly and had deceived him. "Houndoom, use Flamethrower!" He ordered, pointing at the apparent twins. He didn't want to take any chances against this new unknown threat.

Nurse Joy's eyes widened. "No! Get out of the way!" She shouted, her disgust for the Team Magma Grunt rising even _more_ at the fact he had no qualms about ordering his Pokémon to attack humans.

Latias put one of her arms forward, and her eyes glowed a shade of light bluish white as she used her mental powers to generate a powerful psychic shield in front of her and Bianca which deflected the flamethrower, splitting it into many torrents of flames that grazed the shield, but was completely unable to even dent it. Janet's eyes widened. "She did it again! Ju-just what is she?" She wondered. "That seems like too much for a human Psychic!"

Latias smiled, an interesting idea forming in her mind. _"Bianca, remember that little drawing you were making before these clowns attacked?"_ She asked her best friend, looking at her out the corner of her eye as she walked forward.

Bianca nodded. "Yeah I do, I've yet to finish it, though," she answered.

"_I'm gonna let you make it real tonight, even if it's not an actual contest. You ready?"_ Latias asked, smirking lightly as she placed herself a good distance in front of the brunette artist.

Bianca gave a little startled jump, clearly not expecting that. "Bu-but Latias! I'm no-" She started.

"_Relax, I'll be very cooperative,"_ Latias interrupted her, giving her a confident nod. Bianca nodded back at the dragoness, taking a deep breath and getting ready. After all, if Latias was making the effort to fight, the least she could do was concede Latias the pleasure of commanding her.

"Just don't expect me to be awesome or something, this is my first time commanding a Pokémon," Bianca warned her friend. Latias gave a curt nod in reply.

Latias' eyes glowed and she was covered in a very pretty and flashy shower of blue sparkles as she returned to her true dragon form, startling everyone except Bianca and Nurse Joy. The Team Magma Grunt froze on the spot, along with his three Pokémon. "Wh-what?" he questioned flatly, having absolutely no other words for what he was seeing.

Nurse Joy stood still, gazing intently at the Latias as realization hit her. "So she _is_ a Latias…" Nurse Joy said slowly. "I was left in doubts when she called her that in the storeroom. No wonder she's such a strong psychic."

A trainer blinked in confusion, turning to look at the Pokémon Nurse. "If she called her that, why doubt then?" He asked in curiosity.

Nurse Joy shrugged. "I've seen people named after Legendary Pokémon, or abbreviations or similar sounding names before. For example, I've heard Latias and similar spellings are common female names in Alto Mare."

Janet looked at the girl in pure shock and then at the Latias, and then back at Bianca. "But… she was perfectly human!" She cried in astonishment.

Nurse Joy nodded. "Yeah… but she's a Legendary Pokémon too, who knows what sorts of magnificent powers she has."

"So… do we fight?" Janet asked curiously, turning to look at the Pokémon nurse.

Nurse Joy shook her head. "I suggest against it, let's let Latias handle it and not get in her way." She stepped back, closer to the Pokémon Center, and everyone else did the same.

Latias giggled to herself. Reactions of people to her shape-shifting powers were something that greatly amused her every time she got the chance to do it, though they failed to surpass her favorite reaction of all, which was Ash's._ "Ready Bianca?" _Latias asked telepathically.

Bianca sighed to relax herself. "Yes, I am," she answered, trying to put forth as much of her characteristic strong attitude to ease the nervousness of directing a battle as she could.

The Grunt growled, still shocked at what he was seeing, and after a few seconds he was finally able to react accordingly. "No wonder… that girl was a Latias all along since the start… dammit! This is _very _bad," he mumbled, wondering how he'd get out of this one. He slowly reached for his visor and activated a small camera to record the Latias and send the video to Tabitha's visor. "I'm not gonna lose, you little runt," the Grunt declared, glaring at the dragoness and trying to act as bravely as possible, despite the fear and uncertainty he really had at facing a Legendary. Latias shrugged uninterestedly, her empathy easily sensing his charade. The grunt growled louder, angered by her silent taunt.

"Um, Latias, what were your attacks exactly?" Bianca asked quietly, not wanting the embarrassing question to be heard by others. "I don't really know much."

"_Mist Ball, Tackle, Ice Beam, DragonBreath and Psychic,"_ Latias answered telepathically.

Bianca nodded. "Thanks, Latias."

The Grunt immediately started the fight, the pressure of fighting a Legendary Pokémon getting the better of him. "Houndoom, use Flamethrower to roast that dragon!" He ordered quickly. The large demonic canine took a deep breath as flames began swirling inside its muzzle, preparing the fire attack.

Bianca paused when the first command of the battle was given, looking on as the Fire and Dark-type began to prepare its attack. _'Uh, which attack to use now? What should I do?'_ Bianca wondered, nervousness eating her up, as this was the first time she commanded a battle.

"_How about you order me to use Psychic to block the attack?"_ Latias suggested helpfully, and then giggled softly.

Bianca nodded. "Okay! Latias, use Psychic to block the attack!" She repeated.

The Houndoom spat the powerful stream of flames towards the Legendary Dragoness, but she didn't look too alarmed by the attack, as her eyes shined a strong shade of bluish white. The Flamethrower was torn apart easily by the dragoness' psychic powers. The Grunt growled in frustration at how easily the attack was shrugged off. "Mightyena, attack that thing with Crunch! Let's see if she likes it!" He ordered, shifting his gaze from Houndoom to Mightyena.

Mightyena quickly ran towards Latias as its muzzle began to gather dark energy, enlarging its fangs and teeth with dark power. Bianca froze slightly, once again not knowing how to defend against such a direct frontal attack. Seeing the Mightyena was getting too close to her and Bianca didn't seem to give any order, Latias decided to simply act on her own. The Mightyena jumped as high as it could to lunge at her, but Latias, seeing its attack maneuver, quickly levitated lower, making the canine Pokémon overshoot her. As it passed right over her, Latias bolted up, smashing her head against its midsection and knocking the air out of the canine as it was sent flying to the side with a pained cry from the sheer force Latias had hit it with. Bianca signed in relief. "That was a good one Latias… I had no idea what to do," she told the Legendary.

"_Well, you could have just told me to dodge,"_ Latias answered her. _"But it's okay, let's continue, alright?"_

Bianca nodded. "Yep," she replied as she turned her gaze back to the battlefield.

"Zangoose, use Crush Claw!" The grunt ordered. If his Mightyena and Houndoom had failed in their attacks, maybe the Zangoose would succeed. The Cat Ferret Pokémon nodded and charged at a rather impressive speed towards Latias, its claws shining a bright white.

"Oh… what to do… wait, Zangoose aren't Dark-types, right?" Bianca asked.

"_Nope, they aren't,"_ Latias answered as the Zangoose leaped at her, claws ready.

Bianca smirked. "Okay then, Latias! Hit it with a Psychic Attack!" She shouted. Latias nodded as her eyes glowed, stopping the Normal-type in midair right in front of her.

"Ack, let me go!" The Zangoose growled and struggled as hard as it could against the Dragoness' mental hold in a futile attempt to escape. It then cried in pain as its body was bombarded rather painfully by Latias' psychic powers.

"Okay," Latias answered the Pokémon in front of her, seeing out of the corner of her eye that Mightyena was starting to stand up after she had knocked it away. With a powerful exertion of her mind she flung the Zangoose rather hard towards the Mightyena, crashing them harshly into each other with a loud metallic clang emitting from their armors.

"Oh! I know!" Bianca realized suddenly. "Latias, Ice Beam!" She ordered, pointing at the two Pokémon Latias had smashed together.

Latias smirked, happy that Bianca was getting the hang of it. She turned towards the two Pokémon that were still badly dazed from the crash. She opened her mouth as an orb of icy-blue energy began to form inside it. After she was finished charging it, she spat a beam of freezing energies towards them, freezing them almost instantly in a huge block of ice. The Grunt growled. "Ugh! Not fair!" He complained angrily.

More and more of the trainers and people from the Pokémon Center began to gather outside the building to watch the Legendary Dragoness fight, some with stunned expressions and others with expressions of surprise and amazement, awed at the sight of a Legendary Pokémon. Nurse Joy laughed. "At this rate Jenny's only gonna get here in time to clean up the trash," she said in amusement.

Janet nodded. "Which is actually good, the bad guys will already be beaten!"

"Yeah," May agreed. "She's a really cool Pokémon," she commented. Janet and Nurse Joy nodded in agreement.

The Grunt snarled at the things he heard being talked about behind him. "Houndoom, thaw them out with Flamethrower!" He ordered. The large demonic canine spat a powerful stream of flames at its partners, instantly thawing out both of the frozen Pokémon.

"Ahh! Hey! Attack the dragon, not us!" The Mightyena barked angrily, jumping away from the hurtful flames as well, though that didn't keep its fur from being singed due to its armor heating up from the flames. It panted and whimpered, burns starting to develop on its skin beneath the superheated armor. Who thought it would be a good idea to make it wear this, again?

"Ahhh! Watch it!" Zangoose yelled as it jumped away, some of its fur singed from the brush with the flames, and the armor heating up and burning him further.

Houndoom glared at them. "I got you out of the ice you know! You could be a little bit more grateful!" It told them.

"Attack it at the same time! Use Crunch! Zangoose, you use Crush Claw!" The Grunt bellowed as loud as he could. The three Pokémon stopped their argument, nodded and charged towards Latias. The two canines' muzzles began shining with dark power, and Zangoose's claws glowed faintly in a white light.

Bianca paused and hummed in thought, seeing the three-way attack ordered against her and Latias, but unlike the past attack, she issued an order. "Latias, use Mist Ball to hide yourself!"

Latias nodded. _"Good choice Bianca,"_ she told her 'trainer' telepathically. Latias' eyes glowed, and then her body followed, giving off a faint and pretty whitish glow, causing May and Janet to squeal at how pretty and cute she looked. Latias put her claws together; forming a tight red sphere of concentrated psychic powers. Once that was ready, a thick veil of mist surrounded it completely, forming a very strong ball of compressed mists between the dragoness' claws.

As the Team Magma Pokémon began to get close to the Legendary, Latias smirked and detonated the Mist Ball still on her claws, covering the improvised battlefield in a thick red mist. "Dammit, I can't see!" Houndoom complained once it and the other two had gotten into the mist. "Is this a Psychic attack?" It wondered.

"Seems so, we're dark-types, so we shouldn't really care," Mightyena said, smirking.

"Ahhh!" Zangoose screamed in pain, doubling over as the powerful psychic mists started attacking it, causing pain in all of its body as it felt its power being zapped away by the fog.

Mightyena gasped in realization. "Dammit! Zangoose aren't dark types!"

Houndoom nodded. "Let's escape this mist!" Both of them quickly ran to where they heard the Cat Ferret Pokémon's pained cries. They bit on his armor and quickly dragged it out of the Mist field before it could pass out from agony.

Latias chuckled. "_Seems that they worry about the other somewhat," _she commented as the wind slowly began to dissipate the Mist. _"That's refreshing."_

"That's a really powerful move Latias," Bianca praised her. "Wow…"

Latias smiled. _"Thank you Bianca."_

The Houndoom growled at her. "You'll pay for that!" It threatened the dragoness as both Zangoose and Mightyena stood at the Houndoom's side, but the Normal-type still looked very weakened from the effects of Latias' attack. A small crack suddenly got their attention.

"What was that?" Mightyena asked. Another crack echoed.

The Houndoom froze, eyes widening in horror when it realized that the sound was. "It's our armors!" It cried in alarm.

The Grunt gasped in shock at what he saw. "Wha- No!" He cried as well, but there was nothing he could do. The armor each Pokémon was wearing looked in bad shape, all of them filled with dents and ripped off parts. As they looked on, the armors began to fall apart completely, landing beside each Pokémon in a pile of weakened metal.

Latias smirked when she saw that. _"Well, it seems like my Mist Ball was too much," _she said coolly, remembering that while the Houndoom and Mightyena themselves were Dark-types and thus protected from the Psychic-attack, there was nothing their typing could do to protect their armors.

The Grunt growled. "You're gonna pay for that!" He told Bianca.

Bianca laughed. "Seriously, you think you're in any position to make threats?"

"I remember how you were cowering back at the hallway. Without that little Dragon you're nothing!" He taunted her, smirking.

Bianca shrugged. "So? I _have_ that little dragon on my side, so I can say whatever I want to. And you're hardly one to talk. What would you do without your puppies?" She taunted. She spread her arms a little and laughed. "I'm in the better position here!"

The Grunt glared at her, tightening his hands into fists. "I'll show you… Houndoom, roast the dragon with Fire Blast!" He shouted to his Pokémon. The large Dark-type Pokémon nodded once, inhaled deeply, and then spat a huge five-pointed star of flames towards Latias.

"Uh… what to do now…" Bianca muttered, her eyes narrowing slightly as she saw the Houndoom attack.

"_How about you tell me to stop it with Psychic?"_ Latias suggested helpfully, a teasing tone in her voice and a cute girly giggle echoing in the end.

Bianca nodded. "Yep, sounds good to me. Latias, stop it with Psychic!"

Latias' eyes glowed brightly as she exerted her extraordinary mental powers. The Fire Blast had no hope against the dragoness' powers and was torn apart to nothing but small embers that the cool night wind easily blew away. "Mightyena!" the Grunt called, once again shifting attention between his three Pokémon. "Use Shadow Ball!"

"Watch how it's done! Loser!" Mightyena taunted the Houndoom, causing the demonic dog to growl at it. Mightyena took a deep breath, generating an orb of concentrated shadows inside its muzzle. Once the attack was ready it thrust its head forward, firing it while aiming directly at the Legendary Dragoness.

"Latias, stop it with DragonBreath!" Bianca countered quickly, pointing at the Mightyena's attack.

Latias blinked in light confusion. _"Why not use Psychic again?" _She asked telepathically.

'_I already used Psychic to block the Fire Blast, let's be a little original and not repeat ourselves, artists like me love originality,' _Bianca answered.

Latias nodded and took a deep breath, then launched a stream of white draconic flames at the incoming shadowy spherical projectile. The Dragon's superior attack power made the flames easily overpower the Shadow Ball. The Mightyena yelped in pain as the DragonBreath collided against it and pushed it back a dozen feet. "Ow! Ow! No fair!" It barked in agony.

Houndoom laughed openly at its misfortune. "Who's the loser now?"

"Shut up!" Mightyena angrily snapped back before hastily shaking its whole body, dislodging some painfully smoldering fur strands from its back. "Owowow! Hothothot!" It exclaimed painfully, prompting another burst of laughter from Houndoom.

"Zangoose! It's your turn now! Hit that damned Legendary with Faint Attack!" The Team Magma Grunt ordered.

Zangoose crouched on all fours as his form suddenly crackled with Dark-energy, then it seemed to blur as it disappeared from sight. Before Latias could react accordingly, she was slammed head on with the Dark-type move right on her chest, causing her to cry out in pain and be pushed back a couple feet due to the attack's type effectiveness. "Latias!" Bianca cried in concern for her best friend's wellbeing.

The Grunt grinned. "That's it!" He called out eagerly, glad that he had finally scored a direct hit. "Finish that runt off with Crush Claw!"

Zangoose nodded and gave a mighty battle cry, jumping high with both claws glowing white. "Take this!" It yelled.

"Oh no… Latias!" Bianca cried again, unsure what to do to aid her friend's predicament.

Latias' eyes narrowed in annoyance as the Cat Ferret Pokémon came closer. Suddenly her claws darted forward, catching the Zangoose's claws in a powerful grip and stopping its jump with relative ease. "And I haven't even learned Dragon Claw," Latias said calmly as the Zangoose looked at her in shock. The Dragoness did a barrel roll right where she was floating while keeping a firm grip on the Zangoose's claws with her own, and with the massive inertia accumulated in the spin she slammed him into the dirt below _hard_, actually creating a crater.

Bianca sighed in relief. "Wow…that was impressive Latias," she praised her best friend.

Latias nodded. _"Thanks Bianca," _she said cheerfully as the Normal-type writhed in pain below her, the dust thrown up by the crash beginning to settle slightly. She frowned when she noticed she had just put a little too much power into that. "Um, sorry for that," she apologized to the Normal-type.

Bianca nodded, glad Latias had shaken off those attacks as well as resisted the hit she had taken. "I think this is enough for me, how about you take the battle from here on out all by yourself?" She asked. "It's fun, but I don't think I'm really ready to keep up."

Latias smiled_. "If you want to bow out, okay," _she answered her friend telepathically.

"Both of you attack it with Crunch!" The Grunt ordered sharply, interrupting the talk going on between the two long-time friends. The two canine Pokémon charged at Latias as their muzzles gained a Dark-typed energy coat, lengthening their fangs and teeth in preparation for the powerful attack.

Latias looked at them fixedly, but didn't retreat a single foot back. She took a deep breath as a flurry of white flames began to swirl inside her mouth and then exhaled a strong DragonBreath attack at the Houndoom, hitting it directly and sending it reeling back. Just as she did that, her eyes glowed as she telekinetically grabbed hold of the Zangoose below her and flung it towards the incoming Mightyena, crashing them against each other very harshly _again_ and sending them flying back to where the Houndoom was, causing the three Pokémon to end up sprawled on the ground next to each other. "No!" The Grunt gasped, face red with anger as Latias kept easily shrugging off every attack he sent her way.

Bianca smirked. "Had enough?" She asked tauntingly, her tone of voice smug.

The Grunt growled. "Let's see you act so tough if we were alone…"

Bianca laughed. "Once you've lost the element of surprise, you… are actually pretty meek," she taunted. Latias floated right in front of her, ready to continue the fight and back up her taunts.

The Grunt screamed in frustration. "That's it! Houndoom, shut her up already with Dark Pulse!" He commanded angrily, shaking from rage. The Dark Pokémon opened its muzzle, creating a sphere of black and purple ringed dark energy, and fired it in the shape of a long beam consisting of overlapped rings of darkness. Latias quickly dodged to the side with a single fluid motion of her skillful levitation. "Mightyena, use Shadow Ball!" The Grunt ordered. Mightyena opened its muzzle and spat a large orb of shadow energies towards the Legendary Dragoness' location after dodging the Dark Pulse attack.

Latias took a quick breath and countered the incoming projectile with a DragonBreath attack as fast as she could, forgoing power for speed. The stream of flames collided midair with the Shadow Ball, causing both attacks to detonate violently against each other. "Faint Attack!" The grunt's command echoed. Out of the smoke caused by the blast Houndoom emerged, its form covered in dark energy. It collided against Latias' chest hard, pushing the dragoness back and making her cry out in pain from the super-effective hit.

"Latias! Hang in there!" Bianca shouted encouragingly to her friend as she saw her take another rather tough hit. "You can do it!" She cheered.

"Oh no she can't! Zangoose, hit the damn thing with Hidden Power!" The grunt ordered quickly so he could hit Latias again without letting her recover effectively from the previous hit she had taken. Zangoose gave a mighty battle cry as it put both clawed arms together. An odd energy began to emit from between them, quickly forming a cluster of white orbs. It flung them towards the stunned Latias, hitting her and detonating explosively, making her cry out in pain as her form was hidden by the smoke of the blast. "Haha! Not so tough now, are you?!" The Grunt taunted as his three Pokémon cheered.

Bianca growled at his taunt, her right hand tightening into a fist. "It'll take a lot more than that to beat Latias!" Bianca shouted back, not doubting her friend in the slightest as the smoke began to slowly dissipate, revealing Latias with her eyes closed as she winced from the pain of the attacks.

"We'll see then, but the Latias is done for! Get it with Crush Claw, Zangoose!" The Grunt yelled, trying to hit the dragon once again before she recovered effectively. The Zangoose nodded and ran towards Latias, then took a spectacular jump, aiming directly at the Legendary.

Latias cringed as another sting of pain ran through her body, still feeling rather pained from the consecutive hits she took, but looked up as she sensed one of the enemy Pokémon incoming and noticed the Normal-type. She smirked while narrowing her eyes at the way it was attacking. She had it now. Latias quickly put her arms together and generated a Mist Ball between her claws as fast as she could. The Zangoose's eyes widened midair as it saw what Latias was doing. "Oh no…" it muttered in terror, already fearing what was about to happen.

Latias nodded. "Oh yes." As the flying Zangoose came at her, she thrust her arm forward and smashed the Mist Ball into the incoming Normal-type's midsection, causing it to gasp and cry in pain very loudly. Latias pushed the Mist Ball with all her might, releasing the attack and sending both Zangoose and the sphere flying in a straight line, colliding against a tree and almost splitting it in half while the attack exploded in a massive curtain of reddish mist, finishing off and knocking out the Zangoose.

Latias frowned, her empathy feeling the pain the Zangoose had experienced in her rather merciless attack. It was another of the reasons fighting wasn't exactly a thing she enjoyed, her connection to the feelings of others made her all too aware of her opponents' pain. _'Well, maybe one day I'll find a way to sort it out,'_ Latias thought to herself.

"Houndoom, Dark Pulse!" the Grunt ordered, interrupting Latias' train of thought as the obedient canine Pokémon spat a beam of rings of pure dark energy at Latias. She calmly levitated to the side, dodging the attack. To further the surprise for her next attack, her plumage vibrated slightly with twinkles of light before she completely disappeared, activating her invisibility.

Bianca smirked. "Get them, Latias!"

Latias nodded, even if it was unseen. _"Oh, I will,"_ she replied telepathically to her friend.

The grunt laughed. "You stupid Pokémon, I have easier ways to find you if you turn invisible! Mightyena, use Crunch on the human!" He ordered, pointing at Bianca.

Bianca raised an eyebrow. "What?" She asked flatly. "That's really low!"

The Grunt smirked. "Who cares? Attack her, Mightyena!"

The Mightyena charged at Bianca, fangs enlarged with Dark-type energy as it prepared a Crunch attack on the apparently defenseless human. Bianca laughed. "That's the worst mistake you've made so far. You're lucky it's Latias who you're doing this in front of. Latios isn't as nice as her."

The Grunt blinked. "What the hell are you talking about?" He asked.

Bianca grinned. "This." She did not need to say any further as the Mightyena lunged at her, mouth wide open to bite her. But as it leaped at her, it was suddenly tackled extremely hard by an invisible force, followed by a massive explosion of white flames courtesy of Latias' DragonBreath, flinging the Mightyena right into the same tree Zangoose had been knocked out against. The Dark-type hit the tree a bit higher up the trunk, then slid down and landed on top of the unconscious Zangoose, also knocked out.

"Oh crap," the Grunt said fearfully. Two of this three Pokémon had lost already. He shakily held up their Pokéballs and recalled them. A pair of beams was fired from the two spheres, absorbing the Pokémon inside them in flashes of red energy. "Houndoom, are you still with me?" The Houndoom nodded fearfully. It wasn't the same fighting a Latias in a three versus one advantage than all alone.

Bianca laughed. "You've lost," she stated confidently.

"Houndoom, shut her up already with Fire Blast!" the Grunt screamed in frustration and anger, refusing to admit he had lost. The Houndoom nodded and took a deep breath, preparing the attack. Latias didn't let him. Taking advantage of the massive speed her species were famous for, she crossed the distance between her and the Houndoom before the grunt or even Bianca could blink, tackling it so hard it was knocked out instantly, and sent flying straight towards the Grunt.

"Ahhh!" The Grunt screamed as the defeated Houndoom crashed into him, sending them both tumbling to the ground. He quickly grabbed a Pokéball and returned the defeated Pokémon to get the weight off him and then sat up, looking around and gulping in fear.

Nurse Joy and several of the trainers watching the battle walked up to him. "See? It would have all been easier if you just gave up at the start," Nurse Joy told him, shaking her head sadly. "You would have spared your Pokémon the pain and humiliation of defeat."

"Shut up you… uh, clone thing!" The grunt shouted to Nurse Joy as he turned around to run, but only came face-to-face with Bianca and Latias.

"You aren't going anywhere," Bianca stated, half-chuckling in amusement.

Latias' eyes glowed, and the grunt was drawn to her look. He almost felt hypnotized by the eyes of the Legendary, but he quickly shook his head, trying to free herself from the trance. "No! You won't cap-" He began to say, but the speech died in his mouth, his pupils widened and they lost the flicker of consciousness as he swayed dizzily and dropped the floor, knocked out cold.

Janet frowned. "What did Latias do? She didn't kill him, did she?" She gulped slightly, the idea of a Pokémon capable of doing that with as much as a thought was rather scary.

Bianca smiled and laughed heartily. "Relax; she just put him to sleep, right Latias?" She put her arm around the dragoness' neck affectionately. Latias smiled back and leaned against her friend, pressing her cheek against Bianca's and giving a little nod to the crowd.

Nurse Joy nodded. "This will make Jenny taking them in a lot easier. Thanks Latias, for saving us from these criminals, we all owe you a debt we can never repay," she said gratefully. Latias nodded and smiled sweetly in understanding, it was another reason she had offered up for this fight, she preferred dealing with it herself than seeing other Pokémon that had more chances of being hurt fight it.

Janet smirked. "I thought you said you weren't even a trainer or coordinator, and yet you turn out to have a Latias?" she asked Bianca, raising an eyebrow.

Bianca shook her head as she spoke. "Oh, I'm not a trainer. Latias is my best friend, but by legal capture she's not my Pokémon, she's a friend's. Remember a boy with a Pikachu that was with me earlier?"

Janet hummed. "I think when I saw you out the corner of my eyes before I saw a kid like that back at the lounge… I think."

Bianca nodded. "She was captured by him, but she does as I say because she's my best friend." Latias nodded happily to back up what Bianca was saying, turning her head and giving Bianca a couple of affectionate licks on the cheek. Bianca giggled at the feeling, petting the legendary dragon's head.

Nurse Joy smiled, examining the Legendary's mannerisms, the look in her eyes and her overall attitude. "I have to say, she looks like a very happy Pokémon. She certainly loves the condition she's in. Happy Pokémon like her bring joy to my heart."

May frowned. "Speaking of Ash, where is he? We haven't heard from him. And what about Alden?"

Bianca gasped. "Oh, right! They're fighting the rest of the bad guys in the ruins. Latias, go and help them, quickly!"

Latias nodded, flying from Bianca's side. Before she departed, her eyes glowed brightly. To everyone's surprise, the front doors of the center opened, and floating through them was the other Team Magma Grunt Latias had taken care of inside, still tied up and unconscious. He was set beside the other one and she arranged both of them in a sitting position. The ropes binding the one from the Center began to untie all on their own almost by magic as everyone watched in astonishment. The ropes then tied firmly around both of the criminals, securing them. _"There, this will make it easier to keep an eye on them. I'll go now. You're okay to stay here with May, right Bianca?"_ Latias asked, looking at her best friend and smiling.

Bianca nodded. "I'm okay Latias, go and help them out!" She told her encouragingly, giving her a light push. Latias giggled and took flight for the forest, leaving Bianca and May at the Pokémon Center with everyone else.

…

Meanwhile, the Confident Grunt was still struggling in his fight against Ash. "Mightyena, get those two runts!" The Confident Grunt shouted, pointing at Larvitar and Phanpy.

Ash laughed. "Oh no you don't get them! Larvitar, use Rock Smash!" He countered. Mightyena charged at the two kids. Larvitar charged forward as well, a bit slowly as he wasn't that fast. His right arm glowed white as he prepared his attack. As Mightyena and Larvitar came closer, Ash decided to follow up with his next move. "Phanpy, use a Rollout attack!" Ash shouted. The little blue elephant-like Pokémon nodded eagerly and curled into a tight ball and started rolling forward.

Larvitar swung his bright glowing fist at the Mightyena, but the Dark-type Pokémon took no chances and immediately leaped to the side to evade the attack, something Ash had been expecting, surprisingly. "Phanpy, roll to the right!" Ash shouted, intending on directing Phanpy directly into a collision with the Dark-type. Phanpy leaned slightly to the left, letting his weight carry him and making him turn towards that side. Ash frowned at the kid's mistake and face-palmed. "No! That's left, to the other side!" Ash shouted, quickly correcting him. Phanpy rapidly corrected and leaned to the other side, managing to make the turn in time and smashed into the Mightyena, causing him to cry in pain and skid backwards.

The Grunt sighed. "Stupid Mightyena…" He muttered, and then shifted his focus to his other Pokémon. "Camerupt, finish up that damn Pidgeot already! Use Stone Edge!" He shouted, pointing at the Flying and Normal-type.

"Camerupt hurt you! You in pain!" Camerupt bellowed as two rings of blue light shined around him, materializing into dozens of very sharp stone daggers.

"Pidgeot, use the trees to protect yourself from that attack!" Ash countered. "When you get the chance, hit him with an Air Slash!"

"Okay Ash!" Pidgeot answered as she flew to the side, zigzagging between trees.

"Arghh! You stay still!" Camerupt roared, eyes crossing in confusion as he tried and failed miserably to aim his attack at Pidgeot, all of the daggers he was firing either colliding with tree trunks or flying aimlessly into the dark forest. When his attack ended, Pidgeot flew between two trees and flapped her wings with exceptional force, sending two blades of wind towards the Camerupt, slashing and breaking off part of his armor.

The Confident Grunt, who wasn't really feeling very confident anymore, sighed and put his face between his hands. "Oh for the love of… stupid Pokémon are stupid indeed. Mightyena, use Shadow Ball, see if that works a little bit," he said in a disappointed tone of voice.

Mightyena frowned at his trainer's tone of voice, but nonetheless still attacked. He opened his mouth and fired an orb of concentrated shadowy energy at the two kids. "Take that! So you two learn who the boss here is!" Mightyena taunted them.

"Phanpy, dodge to the side, Larvitar, dig!" Ash shouted his counters. Phanpy nodded happily and leaped to the side while Larvitar dived into the ground and dug underground, both of them dodging the Shadow Ball.

Ash turned his attention to Pidgeot. "Pidgeot, use Aerial Ace!" Ash commanded. Pidgeot nodded and rose higher into the air, preparing a steep dive.

The Grunt laughed. "I'm sick of this, I'll end it all! Camerput, use Eruption!" He roared at the top of his lungs.

Camerupt's eyes glowed a bright red from pure rage as he prepared to use his ultimate attack. "Camerupt kills… Camerupt wins! Camerupt… _EXPLODE_!" He bellowed massively as he reared on his hind legs, magma and ashes emanating from the two stony lumps on his back. The magma spurting from his lumps began to hit the barks of some trees, causing them to catch on fire.

Ash gulped and began to step back. "Uh-oh… that looks bad…"

The Grunt blinked. "Oops, I think ordering Eruption in the middle of a forest wasn't a good idea, but eh, who cares? Take that, kid!" He taunted, laughing.

Pidgeot narrowed her eyes. _'This idiot is crazy! I need to stop that!' _Pidgeot dove quickly towards the Camerupt, white streaks of wind forming around her as her speed increased dramatically with the Aerial Ace attack Ash had told her to use. She crashed directly into Camerupt's face, making the large Pokémon topple backwards and cry out in pain, thankfully stopping the dangerous Eruption attack.

Ash sighed in relief. "Phew, thanks Pidgeot!" Pidgeot flew back a little, and nodded to her trainer.

"Camerupt, Flamethrower!" The Grunt ordered. Camerupt grinned stupidly and spat a stream of flames at the avian, who was much too close to him to dodge in time. She gave a cry of pain as the flames washed over her and sent her backwards, smashing her into the ground harshly.

"Pidgeot!" Ash cried in concern. The veil of fire covering the avian was suddenly blasted away harshly with a single flap of her powerful wings. She turned to her side and stood up, panting from the experience. Ash released the breath he hadn't known he had been holding. "Are you okay?" He asked her.

Pidgeot nodded. "A bit singed, but nothing I can't handle," she answered him.

A deafening scream of pain interrupted them all. They turned and saw the Mightyena crying, screaming and whimpering in pain. Using Ash's ordered Dig attack, Larvitar had bitten his tail again. "Ahhh! Get him off!" He cried in pain.

Ash laughed. "Fell for it again!" He commented in amusement.

The grunt sighed in dismay. "Mightyena, use Sand Attack!" He shouted.

Mightyena rose quickly and kicked his back legs, sending dirt into Larvitar's face and mouth… and he didn't really care, and just bit harder. "Aaahhh!" Mightyena screamed.

Ash smirked. "Phanpy, use Rollout!" He ordered again. "Knock out that Mightyena!"

Phanpy nodded and charged forwards. "Take this, you meanie!" He yelled as he jumped forward and curled into a tight ball, rolling as fast as he could.

"Mightyena, jump to the side!" The Confident Grunt ordered. The order was surprisingly very effective. Mightyena jumped to the side as much as he could, yipping in pain as that gave his tail a painful tug, but it also meant he wasn't in Phanpy's path anymore. Phanpy crashed into Larvitar, causing him to yelp and release the Dark-type's tail from his deadly jaws.

"Freedom!" Mightyena cried in happiness, looking over himself to look if his tail was okay, and to make sure it wasn't bitten off.

Larvitar glared at Phanpy. "Hey, I'm on your side!" He reproached his surrogate older brother.

Phanpy looked at him sadly, stood on his hind legs and leaned over Larvitar, nuzzling him, licking his face and hugging him with his trunk. "Sorry, sorry, sorry! Sorry, sorry, sorry!" He cried. "I didn't mean to, little brother!"

Larvitar gave a tiny laugh at Phanpy's antics, an odd sound coming from him. "Okay, stop it already, Phanpy!"

Phanpy beamed happily. "You laughed! You laughed!"

Larvitar looked away, blushing in embarrassment. "No I didn't!" He said quickly.

"Mightyena, use Ice Fang!" The Grunt ordered. The cowardly Mightyena took great advantage of the kids' distraction and charged at them, icy energy enveloping his fangs.

"Hidden Power!" Ash shouted, snapping the two little children out of their odd argument. They turned and noticed the incoming Mightyena. They both nodded as their bodies were outlined in whitish energy, forming small orbs of bright energy around them.

Mightyena's ears dropped in dismay as he sighed. "Crap… this is gonna hu-" He never finished as he was hit with a powerful double Hidden Power attack, creating a moderate blast that knocked him out instantly.

"Yay! We won! We won!" Phanpy cheered happily, doing a series of happy skips in circles. Larvitar stared blankly at his older brother's antics. He wondered if he should be doing something like that too, after all he was younger. Larvitar tugged on Phanpy's side and walked towards Ash. Getting the hint, Phanpy followed his brother back to Ash, skipping happily instead of walking.

"Ugghh!" The Grunt cried in frustration. "Stupid Mightyena!" He shouted and refocused his attention on Camerupt, who had just recovered. "That's it, let's just destroy everything! Use Eruption again!" He screamed, giving his final command. He turned and looked for his two other comrades. He soon found them in the distance using the night vision mode on his visor and then ran to them, completely abandoning both of his Pokémon to their luck.

Camerupt didn't notice his trainer leaving, he was too busy roaring incoherently as his lumps began to spew lava everywhere as they charged the deadly attack. "Pidgeot, we need to stop that!" Ash cried.

Pidgeot flew a bit higher to avoid the rising column of ashes. "He's drawing power from the previously failed Eruption; I can't stop this one in time!" She cried to him.

Ash nodded confidently. "Yes, we can! When we were training with Latios I asked you about your attacks, and in them you told me your strongest move, now we'll use it! I've seen it in action in the Silver Conference, I know it'll work!" He said, his tone of voice strong and convinced in his Pokémon's power.

Pidgeot nodded as she knew very well what attack he was talking about. "Of course, I'm always ready Ash!" she answered him, spreading her huge elegant wings in preparation for the attack.

Ash smirked and pointed at Camerupt. "Pidgeot, use Giga Impact!" He bellowed as loud as he could. Pidgeot gave a mighty battle cry, chirping loudly in a high pitched tone as she skydived the attacking Camerupt. A massive orb of volatile yellow energy formed in front of her head, and as she sped up, it split into a dozen streaks of energy that surrounded her form. The space between the streaks was suddenly covered in an extremely powerful lavender-colored energy, turning her into a massive yellow-and-purple comet of pure power.

"Camerupt kills you!" Camerupt roared at the top of his fiery lugs, stomping the ground and aiming his lumps towards the incoming avian. Both of the stony lumps exploded in a blast of magma that shot to the sky like twin streams of pure fiery death. Pidgeot sped up and smashed head on into the lava, holding a stalemate as two massively powerful attacks collided head on, Giga Impact versus Eruption.

"Explodeeeeeee!" Camerupt screamed as he pumped as much power into the attack as he could, increasing the pressure of the massive torrent of molten lava he was firing at the Giga Impact-powered Pidgeot.

"I will… never… fail… Ash!" Pidgeot squawked loudly, spreading her wings inside the Giga Impact, causing the attack to spread out and increase an additional few feet in size as she poured more power into it, then she flapped her wings and dived. The Giga Impact began tearing the stream of lava apart into many streaks that fell to the ground. With a mighty shriek; Pidgeot gave the final push and collided with the Camerupt at full power, resulting in a massive blast of fire and light that carved a large crater into the ground and caused the nearest trees to be uprooted by its sheer power. Ash stepped behind a tree that was thankfully sufficiently far away from the blast, as did Phanpy and Larvitar, shielding their eyes as the powerful explosion lit up the dark night.

The blast went on for several seconds, and then began to grow dimmer and dimmer as the effect was done and it began to lose power. Ash walked around the tree once it was over, and walked towards the small crater, finding Camerupt lying on his side, knocked out cold, with Pidgeot roosting on top of him, her talons lightly digging into his side, a proud look on her face. "Pidgeot!" He called to her, waving his arm.

Pidgeot turned to look at him and flapped her wing, flying a bit before landing at his side. "You called?" She asked, an airy and proud tone to her voice.

Ash laughed and hugged her. "That was amazing! I'm so proud of you!"

Pidgeot nodded, pressing against her trainer in delight and letting him feel her soft feathers. "So, what's next? Go and help Latios and Pikachu?" She asked. She'd have loved to stay for a bit more to enjoy Ash's praise, but she knew that the situation was still dire and there were things left to do.

Ash shook his head. "No, I have something I want you to do," he answered.

Pidgeot blinked and tilted her head. "Oh? What is it?" She wondered, as not much occurred to her other than assisting Pikachu and Latios' fight.

"Go back to the road near here and then follow it away from the town. You'll come to the Oldale Ruins. There are three more of these bad guys, and they kidnapped Professor Alden, he's a guy dressed in yellow, you should recognize him easily since he's the only one not wearing a silly red hood thing," Ash explained to her. "Go to the ruins and make sure he's okay."

Pidgeot nodded. "Alright Ash, I will." She spread her wings, preparing to take off and follow Ash's order.

"Wait!" Ash stopped her, placing an arm on her right wing to prevent her from taking flight yet. "There's three of these guys, so don't try fighting them on your own. Just stay hidden and watch, and only intervene if Alden is about to be hurt, and if you _do_ intervene, make sure you get him and yourself out and escape. They'd be too much for you, so…" he paused, sighing. "Be careful, okay Pidgeot?"

"Okay Ash, don't worry, I'll be fine, and I'll make sure that human is okay too," she responded to him, reaching forward while leaning down and then lightly nuzzling her trainer fondly by pressing her cheek against his own. She then gently raked the sharp edge of her beak on his neck, causing him to laugh heartily at the funny sensation that caused him. He put a hand on her neck, stroking it gently.

"Hey, that feels funny," Ash said, his laughter quieting slightly. Pidgeot chirped, then pulled back and nodded. She began to flap her wings and took off to the sky, following the road Ash had pointed out to her. He turned to his other two Pokémon and crouched down, petting them both. "You two were amazing, good job," he praised them with a warm smile.

Larvitar nodded. "Thanks," he said appreciatively.

Phanpy nodded happily, grinning childishly. "Yay! Thankies Daddy! I love you Daddy!"

Ash chuckled and petted them a bit more. "I love you too Phanpy. Go back and rest in your Pokéballs," he said, then took out two Pokéballs and returned them. He looked around at the woods that had caught on fire because of the Camerupt's attack and frowned sadly. He had no idea what to do now about then as he had no way of putting out the fire at the moment, so he decided to abandon the scene. "Now… I'll see how Latios and Pikachu are," He said finally. "Maybe Latios will have some idea on how to put out the fires." He turned to where he heard the sounds of attacks and began to walk in that direction.

…

Despite the relentless attacks of the two Pokémon, the Alpha Houndoom refused to admit defeat like this. He was determined to prove it'd take a lot more to beat him. He knew it'd take a bit for the three Pokémon Latios had smashed away with the log to completely recover. "Get the Pikachu!" He barked out loudly to the remaining group of underlings.

"Got it!" One of Mightyena shouted in confirmation. The three Pokémon nodded and immediately charged up their attacks, Flamethrower for the Houndoom and Shadow Ball for the Mightyena.

The three canines fired the attacks towards the airborne Pikachu, forcing him to use up his Thunder attack defending himself rather than for any offensive purposes. He released the potent attack mid air, casing a veil of electricity to surround his small form and shield himself from any damage. The three attacks collided against the Thunder attack and exploded, but were unable to penetrate the powerful bolt attack. Just as Pikachu protected himself, the Alpha Houndoom quickly ran towards the tree trunk, spitting a red hot stream of flames towards it, incinerating the middle and causing it to split in half and fall apart to his sides. He ignored what little was left of the tree in favor of attacking Latios, but to his dismay Latios wasn't anywhere to be seen. "Where are you?" The Alpha muttered, sharp hearing attentive of any sign of Latios.

"I'm here," Latios answered as he appeared beside the Houndoom in a faint glisten of light, no doubt leftovers of his invisibility, whitish flames already swirling wildly in his mouth.

"Damn!" The Houndoom cursed as he tried to leap back, but was unable to do so in time to escape the attack. He growled quietly, expecting the really painful hit from the Legendary's attack, but was instead surprised when a triple Flamethrower struck Latios, causing him to wince and be smashed into the trunk of a large sturdy tree. "Ha!" The Alpha mocked as he saw Latios being flung away. The attackers responsible were the three Houndoom Latios had hit with the tree a bit earlier.

Pikachu landed beside Latios, his cheeks sparkling protectively as the dragon recovered to prevent any Pokémon from attacking him while he was distracted. "You okay?" He asked as Latios got up.

"Yeah, I'm a dragon, fire doesn't even tickle me," he answered. "How about you?"

Pikachu smirked. "All fine, and you lose, by the way."

Latios blinked. "What?" He asked, utterly confused as to what Pikachu was talking about.

"You've taken four hits so far if we count those three Flamethrowers individually, I haven't even been hit once," Pikachu answered, grinning. Latios rolled his eyes, but he admitted he had lost and his Electric-type friend was right.

"Surround them!" The Alpha ordered. The seven Dark-type Pokémon immediately rushed at them, surrounding them in a perfect circle while still keeping a decent distance. "We've got you trapped now!" the Alpha told them, a wicked smirk on his muzzle.

Latios laughed. "Do you think this scares us?" He asked, glancing at the Alpha Houndoom directly. "You'll need to do a lot better than this."

"We're powerful Pokémon of Team Magma, you should fear us!" one of the Houndoom suggested, then chuckled darkly. "By the power of the Lord God Groudon, we'll beat you and fulfill our mission!"

Latios blinked in surprise at what the Houndoom had said. "What? Groudon? What about him?" He asked curiously, his interest spiking at what the Houndoom said.

"It's this group's plan to help him in his war against that bitch Kyogre, the fact that more water covers the planet than earth is an insult!" The Alpha Houndoom barked angrily, growling lowly. "A goal we're more than happy to aid, for Lord God Groudon! He's a Legendary to be admired and respected!"

Latios paused for a second, and then frowned. "Uh, you openly respect a Legendary, yet you haven't realized you're attacking one, namely me?"

A Mightyena nodded. "Yeah, you're a Legendary, but you're getting in our way, we have to deal with you," he explained.

"And we respect and worship Lord God Groudon, not _you_, Latios," a Houndoom added.

The Alpha Houndoom smirked. "You are nothing next to Lord God Groudon Latios, _nothing_! It's him we respect, not you; you're just a tiny little unimportant Legendary. You aren't really worth respecting, so we have no problem fighting you to get you out of Team Magma's way," he told Latios, a mockingly sick tone in his voice.

"Just… a tiny little unimportant Legendary you say?" Latios whispered, his eyes closing as he looked down. A growl starting rising from the back of his throat.

"Yes! That!" A Houndoom taunted. The seven Dark-types began laughing mockingly at the Legendary dragon.

Latios' claws flexed a few times, the growl getting louder as he shook slightly. Pikachu gulped and took a step back. "Oh crap…" Pikachu muttered. "He's pissed. Latios can be _very_ bad when he's pissed…"

Latios looked at the Houndoom and Mightyena surrounding him, a very scary glare on his eyes as he growled, baring his very sharp, draconic teeth. "Just… an unimportant Legendary…" he whispered once again, the comment bringing back painful memories of his life as an orphan alongside his sister Latias. "Okay then… I'll show you…" he said slowly. "What… _this_ little unimportant Legendary _can do!_" Latios roared at the top of his lungs, spreading his arms outwards as a massive blast of Psychic energies exploded from him, so powerful and concentrated the pure psychic energy was clearly visible, like a tidal wave of pure energy.

Pikachu gave a little cry and tensed as the attack reached him, dreading a horribly painful impact, but to his completely surprise, the psychic attack passed over him harmlessly, like Latios was willing it not to hurt him. The same couldn't be said for the rest of the Dark-types. They hadn't moved back since they trusted their Dark-typing to protect them from Latios' outburst, and it did protect them, at least directly, but they forgot one little aspect.

The massive psychic wave displaced the ground below Latios outwards, marking a crater in it and sending a wave of dirt and rocks in every direction. The Psychic wave was the first thing to hit the Dark-types. It didn't harm them due to their typing, but it completely obliterated their armors. All of them cried in pain as they were cut and bruised as the twisted metal remains of the armor was forcefully torn from them, scraping along their skins, and next they were hit by the wave of rock and dirt, sending them all flying backwards and smashing into whatever was in the way. All of the trees in the immediate vicinity were uprooted violently.

"Shit!" The woman Grunt screamed, turning to run away from the dragon's attack, but it was too late to escape.

The superstitious Grunt just braced himself for the imminent impact. "We're done for…" he muttered. "We woke the rage of a Legendary… please let Lord God Groudon have mercy on us," he pleaded silently. Both Grunts were hit by the wave, and were sent flying back a dozen feet, both of them writhing and whimpering on the dirt in pain, knowing it wasn't over yet they struggled to stand.

Pikachu gulped. To his surprise, he was floating amidst the destruction Latios had caused with a single enraged thought, and he was completely unharmed. It was times like these he honestly feared the dragon. He was surrounded in a faint blue outline, it was clear Latios had made sure he was safe through it, but still the Electric-type was scared. He could feel the anger emanating from Latios through the psychic energies the dragon was lifting him with. The link cut off abruptly and Pikachu was dropped to the ground. Latios didn't say anything nor spared him a look. The dragon floated there for a few moments, his eyes closed, then he turned around as he instead flew to find the Houndoom and Mightyena; he had a score to settle with them.

Latios flew around for a bit, looking for any of the Pokémon he had been fighting. One of the Houndoom emerged from the debris, pushing out branches and panting heavily. It gasped when it saw Latios coming at him. "Oh crap! Oh crap!" it cried as it opened its muzzle to attack the Dragon with a Flamethrower attack in pure desperation.

Latios never gave him the chance. He charged at him and with his titanic speed Latios crossed the distance in a millisecond, tackling the Houndoom _hard. _It cried in pain and crashed into a tree over twenty feet behind him, completely knocked out cold. "One down," Latios said coldly. He turned and saw a Mightyena charging a Shadow Ball behind him. His eyes began to glow a solid blue. Two large tree trunks left by his initial destructive attack on each side of the Dark-type Pokémon suddenly came to life, flying and smashing into the Mightyena, sandwiching him between the heavy trees. The attack had been so fierce the Mightyena didn't even have the strength to cry out in pain, and fell limp between the trees, also unconscious. "Two down," Latios added, his tone of voice rivaling any Ice-type Pokémon.

A powerful Flamethrower smashed into the dragon's side, enveloping him in a stream of fire. But not even a second afterwards the flames were blasted away easily by the Legendary Psychic Dragon's powers. He ominously turned to look at the Houndoom that had attacked him, a terrifying glare in his eyes. The Houndoom gulped, nervous. "Oh… uh… I surrender?" it asked hopefully.

"Three down," Latios replied to it. He took a deep breath and charged an extremely powerful DragonBreath, and spat a massive torrent of white flames that almost looked like a roaring dragon. The Houndoom was hit by the attack and smashed into a tree trunk far behind it. The white flames washed over it and the sides of the tree, burning several branches off and nearly incinerating the tree in half. When the attack ended, the unconscious Houndoom slid to the dirt, landing with a heavy thud and covered in nasty injuries. "Now, who will be number four?" Latios asked out loud, chuckling darkly.

He turned and flew to a different section of the woods, still carefully looking for any sign of the other canine Pokémon. A Mightyena saw him and narrowed its eyes. It crouched low to the ground, silently stalking him and waiting for a perfect chance to attack. Suddenly Latios turned around to face the direction of the Dark canine Pokémon. The Mightyena that had been trying to attack him decided it was too dangerous and tried to run away instead. It turned and fled immediately… when suddenly a tree surrounded in a blue outline blocked its path. It yipped and turned around, and came face to face with Latios. "Oh come on, I give up!" The Mightyena pleaded, shrinking back against the tree in terror.

Latios snorted. "Now you give up, but I am not accepting it. You certainly had fun calling me an unimportant little Legendary. Come on, I dare you to repeat it to my face now!" Latios roared angrily, his face inches from the terrified Mightyena.

The Mightyena whimpered in terror. "I didn't call you that! It was our Alpha!" He argued, terrified.

"But you agreed," Latios whispered as he raised his right arm, sharp claws ready. "Even without Dragon Claw, I assume this hurts anyway."

Before Latios could slash at the Mightyena, another of the Houndoom blasted him with a powerful Dark Pulse, sending Latios away as he cried in pain. "Hurry! Come over here!" the Houndoom shouted, and the Mightyena complied quickly.

Latios' laugh suddenly echoed all around them. "Four and five then," his booming voice rang over the dark woods. Suddenly from behind them, they felt a little heat. Both of the canines turned around in alarm and were met in the face with a massive DragonBreath attack, which carved a small ravine into the dirt and knocked both of them out. "Now… only six and seven left…" Latios muttered, turning to look around for them. He winced, the pain from the numerous hits he'd taken so far making themselves known, but the dragon ignored it. He flew around for a bit and heard a light breathing. Since he knew they were Dark-types and thus hidden from his mental sight he resorted to another method to locate it. He sniffed the air, taking in any scent that could guide him to his target. Having found it he turned and flew around a tree, and found an already unconscious Houndoom. "Heh, pathetic," Latios commented in a mocking town. "Seems my first attack knocked this one out. So, six down… now where's that little Alpha?" Latios whispered, looking around for him. His eyes glowed as he searched for the humans that owned the Pokémon. "Let's pay them a visit… they're a lot easier to find." He flew towards the trainers, and reached them quickly.

"Come on, stand up," the Confident Grunt said as he helped his teammates stand up after Latios had knocked them away. "What happened?"

The woman winced. "The Latios got mad and attacked us…and you? How'd your fight go?" She asked, holding her mid-section in pain.

"Hopelessly lost," the no-longer Confident Grunt answered in shame, frowning sadly. "Let's get the hell out of here, back to the helicopter!"

The woman nodded. "We've lost here too… so let's go!" She agreed immediately.

The Superstitious Grunt sighed. "See? You jinxed us badly, and look what happened! You just had to babble about trainers with Legendary Pokémon didn't you? Now we got our asses handed to us!" He rambled angrily.

"Oh shut up and let's go already!" The woman snapped, then froze in terror. "Or not."

The not-so-confident Grunt turned in the direction she was looking at and what little confidence he had left drained away. "Crap…"

"We're doomed!" The Superstitious Grunt cried in horror. "Please don't kill us Latios!"

Right in front of them was Latios, grinning malevolently. "Oh, what do we have here?" He asked, chuckling as he hovered closer to them. The three grunts cowered in terror, backing up to the tree. They were defenseless; none of them had any Pokémon left. As they screamed in terror because Latios floated ominously closer with each second, a Flamethrower flew between him and the three Grunts, separating them and making Latios back off a bit as he turned to look to the side. "Oh there you are, I thought you had run away," Latios said with a smirk.

"I don't back off," The Alpha Houndoom replied, glaring at him. He ran towards them and quickly set himself in front of the three frightened grunts. "You might have beaten my pack, but you're not beating me!"

Latios laughed. "Really? So tell me, did you like what this unimportant Legendary can do?" He asked, looking down at the Houndoom. The Houndoom growled, but didn't answer. Latios chuckled. "I thought so." Latios suddenly charged at him at an extremely fast speed, tackling him hard. The Houndoom cried as he was smashed into tree, the tree shook harshly, branches and leaves from the top falling as the trunk was nearly ripped in half from the sheer impact, and the Houndoom was almost knocked out. The Grunts had barely avoided getting hit because the Pokémon's impact trajectory against the tree had been a bit too high. They turned and saw the defeated Houndoom slide back down the trunk and into the dirt and then glanced back to Latios in terror.

Latios smirked and opened his mouth, preparing a powerful DragonBreath attack. The Houndoom noticed it and his eyes widened. He struggled to stand, trying to ignore the numerous pains wracking his legs and chest. He had to stand and fight to protect his team. He tried, but he was in too much pain and could only watch helplessly as Latios prepared the attack. The Grunts screamed and tried to run, but their muscles refused to move as Latios held them in place psychically, and that just made their screams become louder because the dragon's psychic grip was a very painful one, they just couldn't get away from the Dragon's attack.

Before Latios could fire the DragonBreath which would have definitely resulted in severe injuries, if not _worse_, a powerful Thunder Attack smashed into him, electrocuting him harshly and making him cry out in pain. "Latios! Stop it! That's enough!" Pikachu screamed as he ran towards him.

Latios turned to his friend and glanced at him in surprise. "Why did you attack me?" He asked, shocked… literally.

"Duh! You were out of control! Seriously Latios, calm down!" Pikachu answered. "The puppy's too hurt to stand without falling down again and the three humans are scared out of their minds. There is no need to attack them anymore, we've won already."

Latios sighed. "But they-"

Pikachu growled and zapped him again with a potent Thunder, interrupting him_. _"Latios, I said, calm down," Pikachu told him firmly once he had finished shocking the dragon. "No buts. Listen, think about Ash. You were going to harm those humans. Would you like what Ash would think and feel if he saw what you were about to do?" He asked, glaring at Latios firmly.

Latios looked down ashamedly, and replied, "No…"

Pikachu nodded. "This is enough, Latios. I know you were angry about their comments, but this is enough. Seriously, you can sometimes lose it badly; I remember when you almost killed me and Ash at the garden when we first met, or those poachers…" He sighed. "Just chill out, okay?"

Latios nodded slowly. "Okay Pikachu," he answered. "I'm calm now…"

Pikachu smiled. "Think about Ash. You know how scared he is when you do stuff like this. I think him being all nice and happy is better than what you can get out of hurting these idiots, don't you agree?"

Latios gave the Grunts one look, and then nodded in agreement. "You're right, Pikachu. Thanks for snapping me out of it."

Pikachu smiled. "That's what friends are for," he replied, and then frowned. "You took them all out; you didn't even leave me a single one to fight!" he complained.

"There's that one," Latios told him, pointing to the Alpha Houndoom. The Dark canine wobbled and succumbed to his wounds, collapsing to the ground. Pikachu laughed as Latios frowned. "Or maybe not…" Latios looked at the Team Magma Grunts, and his eyes glowed. They all clutched their heads and screamed in pain.

"Latios…" Pikachu growled threateningly. Latios rolled his eyes and finished the action with a burst of Psychic power that made it a little less painful. The three Grunts fell down, knocked out. Pikachu nodded. "That's better."

"Brother! What happened?" Latias asked as she rushed in through the tree tops, looking around in concern. "I felt you get very angry through our bond and thought something might have happened! Are you okay?"

Pikachu shook his head. "Nah, he just got pissy over a stupid comment. Nothing bad happened, Latias."

Latias frowned, her empathy picking up Latios' regret. "Are you okay, Latios?"

Latios sighed. "Just feeling a little self-conscious over what I did while I was angry… But don't worry Latias, it's all okay," he answered, and then promptly changed the topic. "How did everything go at the Pokémon Center?" He asked.

"Everything went perfectly. Everyone's free and the bad guys are taken care of," Latias answered.

"Latios! Latias! Pikachu!" Ash shouted as he came over to them, walking between bushes and trees. "Are you all okay?" He asked. His three Pokémon nodded affirmatively to him. Pikachu immediately jumped over to his favorite place on Ash's shoulder.

Ash nodded. "Quick! We need to go and help Alden! I sent Pidgeot over to him a while ago, let's go! Ohh, and also, our fight with the Camerupt left some fires on the trees; we need to put them out, too!" Ash said urgently to them.

Latios nodded, and thought for a second. "Latias, you take care of these three and take them to the Pokémon Center with the ones you took care of," he said, pointing to the Grunts that he had knocked out. "I and Pikachu will go with Ash to put out the fires and help Alden. I think I should be able to put them out psychically."

"Okay, sounds like a plan," Latias answered, turning to the three knocked-out Grunts. "Hurry up, we can't let that fire keep going, or leave Alden with those bad guys."

Latios nodded and turned to Ash, floated behind him and put his head under Ash's legs, then rose up neck first, which caused Ash to slide down his neck and onto his back. "Ready, Ash?"

Ash nodded. "Yes, let's hurry up, Latios!" The Dragon Pokémon nodded and took off. Latias, having her own task to do, started immediately as well.

…

As the battles in the Pokémon center and the woods carried out, Tabitha and his team were still in the ruins of Oldale. The Admin of Team Magma sighed as he looked at the tablet he had retrieved from the Oldale Ruins Chamber; he looked at all the information carved into the tablet on each side, all the complex pictures and characters engraved on it. "What does this thing say? What's it for?" Tabitha questioned, those and many, many more questions swirling in his mind.

Professor Alden looked at the tablet in curiosity from his place a few feet away from the villain leader, but he didn't dare move an inch from where he was as the Houndoom was still beside him, watching him intently.

Tabitha looked around at the rest of the ruins, wondering if perhaps another secret could be hidden outside the chamber, in the walls or in the odd pillars that surrounded the place. He frowned at that idea. _'No, I doubt it. I don't think who ever made this place would put something outside of a secret vault-chamber… It's stupid,' _he thought as he looked around. His gaze then centered on the entrance of the chamber. "Hurry up!" He called to the two Grunts that were inside the place, recording it with their digital cameras.

"We're almost done!" One of the Grunts shouted back to him, the shout echoing almost darkly across the chamber. Flashes could be seen going off inside the chamber from the cameras.

Alden sighed when he heard that, deeply saddened that the Chamber had been violated like this by bad guys. He had yearned for a long time to finally open the chamber, doing extensive research on it, yet these crooks came out of nowhere and force-opened it within a few minutes? He was infuriated and the feeling of helplessness to do anything to stop them only made him more miserable. "Ash, hurry up…" He mumbled quietly, wishing nothing more than for the trainer and his Latios to be here.

Tabitha turned to him when he heard Alden speak, even if quietly, making the archeologist hold his breath in fear for a second. "What was that?" The Magma commander asked, walking closer.

"Nothing!" Alden lied quickly, shaking his head vehemently several times.

Tabitha growled at that, glaring at the archeologist, who thankfully couldn't see it under his eerie visor, but the fact that his face was mostly concealed by the hood and the visor did make it scary. "Don't try to act stupid on me, or else," he threatened. His Houndoom barked once, backing up the Team Magma villain's threat.

Alden sighed and answered truthfully, if it meant keeping that Houndoom at bay. "Okay, okay, I just wished Ash would hurry up," he said sadly, fearing how Tabitha would answer to that.

"That kid… well, I'm surprised by him honestly," Tabitha admitted, his tone reflecting his surprise. "This is a very small rural town, it was supposed to be an easy mission but inexplicably there's a Latios and Latias here." He sighed. "But he's actually being very helpful to us, even if I have to sacrifice some Grunts to fight him."

The Archeologist blinked in pure confusion. "He's being _helpful_? How? He's dead set on beating you all up!" he said incredulously, greatly skeptical of what the villain said.

Tabitha nodded. "Yes. Legendary Pokémon are a lot more sacred and complicated than what most people give them credit for. Latios and Latias, two Legendaries owned by that kid… we can use them to find the Legend _we_ are looking for. Who knows? Maybe one of them is friends with Lord God Groudon," Tabitha answered, then shrugged. "With Legendary Pokémon anything can happen, but knowing where a Latias and Latios are is of great help to us. The knowledge of the kid's Pokémon is more valuable than the Grunts I'll most likely lose against him."

Professor Alden gasped. "He has a Latias too? Wow! That's amazing…"

Tabitha nodded again. "Correct, he's got a Latias too."

"But we only saw the Latios, how do you know?" Alden asked, again skeptical.

"With this," Tabitha answered, tapping the side of his visor twice. "The agents photographed each Legendary with their visors and sent the image to mine, and as we speak they're also recording their fights with each Legendary and uploading it to my visor. I'll look at the recordings later when I have time. We aren't missing a single detail of the Latias and Latios."

Alden growled lowly. All this time he's been getting recordings of Ash's Legendaries as they fought?_ 'I'll have to warn Ash that these guys are on to him…' _He thought. "How could you do that? He's just a kid!"

Tabitha shrugged. "So? He's just a kid, but he's also a kid who's got a pair of _Legendary Pokémon _with him. That's the only thing we care for at the moment," he said simply. "His age doesn't matter when talking about Legendaries."

"We're done with the photographing, Field Commander Tabitha!" One of the Grunt's shouts echoed from inside the chamber, followed by some stupid giggles about Tabitha being a girl's name.

"Set the explosives and prepare to move out!" Tabitha ordered sharply, his tone clearly noting he was rather mad about the name thing.

"Yes sir!" The Grunts shouted from inside the chamber.

Alden froze on the spot. "What?!" He screamed, turning to the Team Magma commander. "Explosives? You aren't planning on _destroying _the chamber, are you!?" He asked desperately, his eyes widening in horror.

"Yes, I am planning to do that," Tabitha answered coldly. "I'll blast that chamber to a million pieces. Got a problem with that?" Tabitha asked darkly, his tone of voice dangerous as the Houndoom beside him growled.

Alden shook his head desperately. "You can't do that! You'll be destroying an ancient wonder of humanity!" He argued back.

"So?" Tabitha asked uninterestedly.

"There's no need to destroy it!" Professor Alden exclaimed in a distressed tone, filled with fear and worry. "You already got what you wanted from it!"

Tabitha glared at the archeologist angrily, even if it wasn't visible under the visor once again. "Not destroy it? If I don't, I'd leave it right open and intact for Team Aqua to come and learn the same things we just did! We've got a big lead over them here; I'm not risking Team Aqua learning the same things we just did. Plus I have it all in the photos. I honestly don't care if I destroy it, in fact, destroying it benefits us because its one advantage we have over our rivals. Team Magma will prevail!"

"I won't let you!" Professor Alden declared bravely. "Violating the chamber like you just did is something, but I won't let you destroy this!" He screamed as he managed to slip past the Houndoom and ran towards the chamber as fast as he could.

Tabitha laughed and held an arm, stopping the Houndoom beside him from rushing towards Alden. He grinned wickedly and reached to one of the six Pokéballs on his belt. He picked it up and threw it towards the entrance of the chamber; the Pokémon inside of it was released in front of Alden, blocking his way to the Chamber. The archeologist screamed in terror at the sight. Blocking the entrance before him was a Houndoom, and unlike the others it was wearing no armor. However, this one was by no means a normal Houndoom.

The regular Houndoom the grunts had all were normal-sized, reaching around their hips in height. This one went _way_ over that. It was at least three times bigger than a normal Houndoom, despite standing on all fours; the Pokémon Tabitha had released was tallerthan Alden himself, easily reaching over seven feet in height. "Wh-wh-what the hell?" Professor Alden stumbled weakly at the sight of the Houndoom that towered over him.

The giant Houndoom growled and tackled Alden, hitting him with the rounded base of its horns. The archeologist screamed and was flung a dozen feet away, landing right in front of Tabitha and clutching his stomach in pain.

Tabitha laughed at the sight. "I am an Admin of Team Magma, one of the great three. I am Field Commander Tabitha! Did you really think I'd have the same Pokémon as the regular Grunts? My Houndoom is just the beginning of the arsenal of Pokémon I'm armed with, because I have some that are _much_ worse than he is," Tabitha declared, brushing the bottom of his shirt away and letting the terrified Alden see a peek of the remaining five Pokéballs on his belt. The smaller regular-sized Houndoom belonging to one of the Grunts immediately stepped back in respect as the larger and more intimidating Houndoom began to walk closer to them.

Alden screamed, crying to crawl back as the Houndoom walked closer. The _huge _demonic canine stomped on Alden, pressing one of his front paws on his chest. The Professor coughed, trying to lift the massive paw which covered a good part of his chest off so he could breathe, but it was too strong and heavy. "Ge-get it off!" He stuttered in terror.

Tabitha laughed again at the pathetic sight and waved his hand slightly, signaling his Houndoom to back off. Professor Alden didn't dare stand back up. "Good," Tabitha commented. Alden glared, feeling impotent to do a thing against the villains.

"The explosives have been planted, Commander!" The two Grunts said in unison as they saluted and reported themselves to Tabitha.

The commander nodded. "Very well, you two. Let's leave. We're done here."

One of the Grunts frowned. "What of the other five members of the unit?" He asked worriedly.

Tabitha clicked his visor a few times, reviewing the latest video feedback of the fight against Latias and Latios. He sighed. "It's too late for them. They're losing badly, and going to rescue them from Latios and Latias would only put us in danger. We already have what we came for. Let's go." He pressed a button on his visor. "Pilot, start the engines, we're leaving," he said over the intercom.

The two Grunts nodded and ran towards the helicopter, each of their Houndoom following them. They opened a large sliding door on the side of the tandem-rotor helicopter and immediately jumped inside, turning and returning their Houndoom back to their Pokéballs. The helicopter's engines began to buzz to life as the rotors began to slowly start spinning. Tabitha walked slowly towards the helicopter with his massive Houndoom obediently at his side, leaving Alden in the middle of the ruins alone. "It's been a pleasure meeting you Alden," Tabitha said ominously, halting a few feet away from the door. "But it's all over for you."

Alden's eyes widened. "Wh-what?" He asked, terrified.

Tabitha grinned darkly. "You've seen too much of the chamber. Team Aqua could still interrogate you, and I think I spoke too much, you know too much, and you might warn that kid with the Legendary Pokémon of our plans, or the authorities…I can't let you leave here alive," the Admin said, pointing at Alden. "Houndoom, Fire Blast," he ordered in a neutral tone. The giant Houndoom turned around from his place beside the Team Magma Admin and spat a massive five-pointed star of fire towards the screaming archeologist as Tabitha smirked darkly. "Game over, one less obstacle in Team Magma's way," he commented.

Suddenly, a loud and high pitched whistling sound echoed around the woods. Tabitha only saw a light beige-colored blur move extremely fast and suddenly get between Alden and the Fire-Blast, and as it did, a massive, _massive_ blade of wind hit the Fire blast attack, destroying the fire with ease and leaving a huge gash on the stone floor of the ruins. Two pillars near the archeologist were split in a perfect clean line from the sheer force of the wind attack. Alden opened his eyes in surprise. There was no fire? No pain? No burns? He gulped, wondering if he was still alive. He looked up and saw his savior, or the back of it.

Pidgeot spread her wings protectively from her place right in front of Alden, glaring dangerously at the Houndoom. She didn't know Alden, but if it was her beloved Ash's order to keep him safe then that was what she'd do. Alden sighed in pure relief, releasing the panicked breath he had been holding. "Th-thank you…" he said gratefully as he stood up, legs wobbling slightly from the terrifying almost-death he suffered. He carefully tried to stay behind the very large avian, who was a bit taller than him. After all, she was capable of carrying a human in flight.

Pidgeot didn't look at him, her gaze still fixed on the massive Houndoom. "Stay away from him, puppy," she warned the monstrous mutt.

The giant Houndoom growled savagely at her, walking a step closer. "Puppy? Lift your tail feathers and I'll show you I'm no puppy!"

Pidgeot laughed at his taunt. "Oh? I'm pretty sure your trainer knows that very well then," she retorted, and if her beak had been capable she definitely would have smirked.

The Houndoom snarled at her. "You puny little feather bag…"

Pidgeot narrowed her piercing eyes at him. "Petty insults won't irritate me. Go back with your master, before I make you. You're the same as all of the Pokémon these guys have. Acting all tough and babbling about how strong you are but you can't back it up on the battlefield."

The Houndoom laughed. "You don't scare me, you tiny Pidgey. I've hunted little prey like you before, you're nothing. Get out of my way before I kill you along with the human."

Pidgeot spread her large wings even wider, completely hiding Alden behind her. "I won't move away, and if you're so confident, I _dare_ you to try and move me," she said confidently, her voice strong as steel, not a single trace of fear despite her opponent being such a large and intimidating Pokémon. The Houndoom snorted, feeling slightly offended she wasn't scared of him like pretty much everyone was.

Tabitha growled. "Get that Pidgeot out of the way! Use Crunch!" He ordered his giant dark Pokémon.

The giant Houndoom growled. "Let's see if you're so brave now!" He barked as he lunged at Pidgeot and Alden, massive teeth enlarged even more with Dark energy as he prepared a deadly Crunch attack.

Pidgeot looked back as Alden cowered at the sight of the Houndoom charging at them. She slammed her wing into Alden's midsection rather hard, pushing him back roughly half a dozen feet into safety before facing the incoming Houndoom. _'I can't dodge, since that'd leave the human vulnerable…' _Pidgeot thought, knowing that she had to fight him off. She narrowed her eyes as her battle plan was made. Both her wings glowed a bright white as she prepared a Steel Wing attack.

"You're done for!" Houndoom taunted as he came down at her. Without flinching, she slashed her wing at him as he opened his jaws. Instinctually, the Houndoom bit on the wing hard, but his Dark-enhanced fangs were unable to penetrate the Steel-hardened wing. Pidgeot grunted and gasped at the pain her wing and her legs felt as the Houndoom's massive weight came down on her, but her plan was fulfilled. Securing a firm grip on the ground below her with her sharp talons, she spun around, using the Houndoom's own inertia and strength against him as he was pulled along by his grip on Pidgeot's Steel-hardened wing.

"Take this!" Pidgeot squawked loudly, smashing her other Steel-hardened wing into his head, breaking his grip on her wing and letting his momentum do the rest. His face was smashed into the dirt from the sheer force her wing came down at him as he skidded out of control. He tried burying his claws into the dirt but it was unable to stop him from crashing into one of the pillars in the ruins and making the ancient stone structure collapse on top of him. The Houndoom's cries of pain echoed across the ruins as the massive debris crashed and piled on top of him. Pidgeot winced and closed one of her eyes as the pain from both her wing and legs hit her, but she still stood strong.

Tabitha's jaw dropped in astonishment as he struggled to accept what he had just witnessed, this Pidgeot beating his giant Houndoom. "Wow, that's one really strong and well-trained Pidgeot," he commented, then growled in disgust, since that was a bad thing for him.

Alden sighed in relief, impressed by the sheer strength demonstrated by the Pokémon that was defending him. "Thanks… uh, are you Ash's Pokémon?" He asked the Bird Pokémon curiously. Pidgeot gave a small nod, but her gaze was still settled on the rocky pile where she had buried the Houndoom.

A loud and demonical growl echoed as the pile of rocks was blasted apart by a massive Hyper Beam that shot skywards. The Houndoom pushed the remaining rocks away and crawled out of the rubble. He was badly beaten up, with many cuts and bruises lining his body, but he still acted like they didn't bother him, because they _didn't_ really bother him. He chuckled darkly, his tone low and sadistic. "You'll need to do a lot better than that to beat me, featherbag."

Pidgeot's eyes widened in shock. _'I made an entire stone pillar collapse on him and he's still getting back up!? Uh-oh… this is bad…' _She thought in alarm, getting ready for a second round. This Pokémon wasn't beating her, no matter the size.

Tabitha growled, his visor sending him the images of what he had been dreading. "Damn, the kid's coming here! There's no more time…Pilot get ready, we're leaving!" He ordered quickly. The Helicopter's tandem rotors began to speed up dramatically, creating a very loud noise and sending out a large gust of wind on all sides. Pidgeot didn't look affected, she was used to powerful wind currents.

The giant Houndoom's ears perked when he heard what Tabitha said and moaned in disappointment. "Don't think I'll forget you easily, you dammed Pidgeot. We'll meet again, I assure you, and next time, I'm gonna make you suffer for this. You haven't seen the last of me!" He threatened darkly, growling angrily.

Pidgeot snorted. "You? You're so pathetic I'll forget about you rather easily. I was a proud flock leader for over a year and I've fought dangers a lot greater than you are and always come out victorious. Your threats don't scare me, because I know…" Her tone suddenly shifted to a proud and very confident one as she continued. "How strong I really am. _You _are nothing."

The giant Houndoom growled angrily. "Until next time, then. We'll see if you're still as confident as you are now," he threatened as he was sucked into the Pokéball by Tabitha, and the helicopter immediately started rising into the sky. Tabitha glared at Alden scornfully once last time, cursing that he was safe, and with nothing else to do he just turned and closed the helicopter's door so they could depart.

The helicopter took off, quickly rising into the sky and flying away. Pidgeot sighed, dropping her defensive battle stance and relaxing. She suddenly winced, a stinging pain coming from the wing Houndoom had bitten. She examined it, it didn't seem too injured, probably just a minor ache from the pressure of the bite. There was no blood, thankfully. _'Wow… he managed to injure it despite my Steel Wing? Impressive…' _She thought. Since she had other things to check on she quickly ignored the slight ache in her wing and turned to Alden, who also looked very relieved. "Are you alright?" She asked him, her keen eyes examining him up and down, looking for any signs of injury.

Professor Alden blinked when Pidgeot chirped at him. "Uh… I can't understand you," he said embarrassedly, scratching the back of his head. Pidgeot frowned, mentally smacking herself. Ash's comprehension of Pokéspeech had gotten her used to a human understanding it, but Ash was the only one. "But…" He gently put his hand on Pidgeot's head and petted her gently. "Thank you for saving me. Really, thanks a lot," Alden said appreciatively.

Pidgeot nodded once. "You're welcome," she said, even though she knew he wouldn't understand her.

Alden gasped when he remembered something very important. "Crap! The explosives they put in the chamber! We need to take them out!" He turned towards the chamber, but Pidgeot quickly spread her uninjured wing out to prevent him from going. "Hey, let me pass!" He exclaimed, pushing against her wing and glaring at her, but to his surprise he found the wing was very strong and he could barely move it. Pidgeot gave him a look that clearly said she thought he was stupid. "Oh…the explosives could detonate while I'm in there…" Alden realized. Pidgeot nodded. "But… the chamber…" Alden said miserably.

"Pidgeot!" A very familiar voice called loudly. Both the archeologist and the avian Pokémon turned to see Ash arriving on Latios' back, with Pikachu on his shoulder. Ash jumped off Latios' back once he was a safe distance from the ground and ran up to them "Are you okay?" Ash asked both of them in concern.

Professor Alden nodded. "Yes, I'm okay Ash. Those nasty guys left already…"

Ash nodded, smiling. "Glad to hear you're okay, professor…" he said to the archeologist and then turned to Pidgeot. "Are you okay, Pidgeot?" He asked.

Pidgeot nodded to him. "I'm mostly okay, just a little hurt in the wing, but it's nothing to worry about."

Ash gasped. "You're hurt?!" He exclaimed panicked. He grabbed both of her wings from her side and spread his arms to look at them, though they didn't really open much considering his arms were very short compared to her wings.

Pidgeot laughed heartily. "I'm okay Ash, and even if I wasn't, you couldn't really heal me like that," she answered, easily pulling her wings from his grasp, shaking her head in amusement.

"Hey!" Professor Alden called to him. "Sorry to interrupt, but those guys put a bomb in the chamber. Tell your Latios to do something!" He said urgently.

Ash's eyes widened and he gasped in shock. "They _what_!? Latios!"

Latios nodded. "On it," he answered. His eyes glowed brightly as he exerted his mental powers into the chamber, feeling his way inside it and looking for any odd device that seemed out of place. He quickly found one and grasped it, pulled the explosive device out of the chamber and paused, wondering what to do with it. Having no idea how it worked or how to deactivate it, he shrugged and shot it skywards with as much of his mental might as he could muster. "All done," he said simply as his eyes stopped glowing.

Professor Alden blinked in surprise. "Wow, that was… rather fast and too easy," he commented, and then frowned. "I kind of expected it'd be a little more… complicated…"

Ash laughed and nodded. "He's a Legendary," he said proudly. "So where did the rest of the bad guys get to?" He asked, looking around. "Wow, it's really dark and creepy here at night…"

"They left in a helicopter," Alden answered. "They must be pretty far away by now. Oh Ash, by the way, they saw your fights, they said they might have plans for you or your Legendaries."

Ash nodded. "Okay Professor Alden, I'll keep it in mind, but… if they did escape…"

"I can fly far faster than anything humans have made for flying, I could catch it easily," Latios spoke up, offering his help.

Ash frowned. "No Latios, it's no use now. They left, there's no point in trying to pick a fight with the ones that left already to who knows where, plus we don't know in which direction they headed. And you'd have to go alone and you already fought a long battle, you could be leaving yourself open for capture, let's just stay as we are and imagine they blasted off like Team Rocket," Ash told him. Latios nodded reluctantly.

A loud explosion echoed and lit the night up in a flash like the newly-risen sun. They looked up to see the very distant conflagration high in the sky from the bomb Latios had hurled away. "Wow, that was a pretty high throw," Pikachu commented.

Latios smirked. "Thanks."

"Hey, let's check the chamber," Ash suggested, feeling very curious to take a peek inside. "Maybe they missed something!"

Alden nodded. "Yeah, I'm kinda eager to see it, too."

Both Ash and Professor Alden walked towards the chamber, Pidgeot and Latios followed them. "Wow, so this is how it looks open," Ash realized as he entered the room. "It's kinda dark in here. I can't see a thing."

Alden frowned. "Yeah, all the light was from their helicopter… the moonlight barely lights up anything…" He sighed. "Guess this will have to wait for tomorrow."

Suddenly the entire chamber was lit up near perfectly by a very bright and quite pretty white light. They turned to find Latios' body glowing. The Dragon laughed at their faces. "Does this help?"

Ash raised an eyebrow. "Wow, I didn't know you could glow in the dark."

Latios laughed. "Yep, I can. It's a special property of my feathers," he responded, winking.

Alden chuckled. "Well, that solves the light problem. Let's go in deeper," he said as he walked deeper into the lit up chamber. Ash nodded and followed him in. Latios frowned. The doorway was way too small for his 'shoulders' and wings to fit in, so he just stuck his neck inside to see as much as he could, and also so the light given off by his neck illuminated the chamber a bit more, Pidgeot shrugged and just stayed outside the chamber, waiting patiently. "Wow… there's so much stuff written over here…" Alden muttered in amazement as he watched it all.

Ash walked around, not really understanding what the drawings meant so he just looked around to see if anything picked up his interest. And soon, something did. "Wow! Alden, check this out!"

Alden quickly rushed to Ash, and gasped. "Wow…" He muttered in astonishment. They had come across the massive mural of the three Pokémon gods. Alden then noticed the small gash in the middle of the mural. "So this is where the tablet came from…"

Ash turned to him. "Tablet?" He asked curiously, tilting his head.

Professor Alden nodded. "Yeah, those crooks took some kind of stone tablet from inside it."

Pikachu frowned. "Well, that means they got what they wanted," he commented sadly. "They won, despite our efforts."

"Yeah…" Ash said sadly, and quickly went to speak of what had grabbed his interest. "What are those?" He asked, pointing to the three mighty Pokémon on the wall. "They look like Pokémon."

"I'm not too sure… maybe they're part of the reason those hooligans came here?" Alden answered doubtfully.

Ash nodded. " Hey Latios? What can you tell us about this?" Ash asked, pointing to the massive mural carved into the back wall of the chamber. Latios craned his neck to the side to get a clear view of the mural. He examined it for a moment, thinking. "Do you know who they are?" Ash added to his question, pointing for a second to each of the Pokémon drawn.

"Those Pokémon… they're… Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza…" Latios muttered. "Ho-Oh's told me about them. They're three ancient Pokémon, I think they're around Ho-Oh's age, if not just a bit older. She said they created the world. Groudon made the land, Kyogre made the sea, and Rayquaza made the sky," he explained.

Ash's eyes widened in pure surprise. "Wow… seriously?" He asked in astonishment.

Latios nodded immediately. "I'd never doubt Ho-Oh's word," he said firmly.

"Have you met them?" Ash asked curiously.

Latios shook his head. "Not all of them. Remember that before you arrived to Alto Mare, me and Latias lived nearly in isolation over there. I've only met a very small handful of Legendaries, and out of those three I've only met Kyogre, which happened when I was a lot younger than I am now," He answered, pointing at the drawing of Kyogre. "I don't know much about the three as a whole regarding what they're like or much of their powers since Ho-Oh said that'd be better to learn directly from them. I do know however that they are _extremely_ powerful gods, after all they basically created this planet."

"Wow… that's amazing…" Ash muttered. "How did your meeting with Kyogre go?"

Latios shrugged. "It started pretty odd at first. When she swam close to Alto Mare, she brought a rainstorm with her due to her Drizzle special ability. As you know Alto Mare's kinda vulnerable to storms and things like that, so I went out to 'confront' the reason of the storm, and when I found her I seriously had no clue what she was or what to do, so I tried to 'scare' her by acting tough and growling and all that in an effort to intimidate her into leaving Alto Mare, which went terrible for me since all she did in response was laugh and call me cute and adorable. After we sorted that out we talked for a bit, I was a pretty young kid back then. She's visited a few times ever since then," Latios answered. "You could say I'm sort of friends with her."

Pikachu laughed at Latios' back-story with Kyogre while Ash just nodded. "Think I'll get to meet them? They sound and look pretty cool," Ash asked, red eyes glistening with hope.

Latios smirked teasingly. "And I'm not pretty cool?" He asked, feigning a tone of hurt at his trainer's comment.

Ash chuckled. "Latios, I'll always think you're really awesome, but you gotta admit that a guy who made the sky sounds even_ more_ awesome."

Latios rolled his eyes, grudgingly admitting that it was true, plus he didn't want to state anything until he met Rayquaza on his own. "That's true I guess, but to answer your previous question, I don't know. You've got pretty good luck when it comes to meeting us Legendaries, so why not? We might meet them."

Pikachu laughed. "What? Hurt they're stronger than you?" He asked his dragon friend teasingly, and in his tone it carried the hidden message of what the Houndoom had said, as a reminder.

Latios chuckled. "Not really, I am a Legendary, and I feel strong and powerful as I am now, but I know I'm far from being among the strongest of our kind. I understand they're stronger and older than me, but that doesn't mean I should feel bad. There's a reason I'm alive and possess the selection of powers I have, and I'll stay happy with what I have. I remember Ho-Oh once told me that all Legendaries have a role and are important, from strongest to weakest. I'll figure out mine one day."

Pikachu nodded. "True, and that's a good thing for you to admit."

Ash looked at the drawing for a few more seconds. "Hey, what does this little guy mean?" He asked, pointing at the human holding out the three orbs before the Legendaries in the drawing.

Latios frowned. "I honestly don't have the faintest idea what he's supposed to be doing. I'll ask Ho-Oh its meaning when I see her again…" He answered.

Ash nodded. "Hey, think you can make me imagine the three Pokémon to their exact looks? They look kinda plain in the image; I wanna see how they look like for real!"

Latios nodded. "Okay Ash," he said as his eyes glowed. Ash relaxed when he felt Latios' presence enter his mind gently, accepting it and putting up no resistance. Latios showed him the mental image of the three Pokémon in perfect detail.

Ash closed his eyes, examining the image Latios was showing him, of the three Pokémon.

Kyogre was a colossal whale-like Pokémon that had two big pectoral fins or "wings", each ending with four square-shaped "fingers". She had a deep blue body and a white chin area with two small spikes protruding under it. Above each eye were two white, oval-shaped spots, and she had red marking stripes around the chin area, eyes, dorsal fins, torso, and on her fins that seemed to resemble runes. The pattern or symbol on the pectoral fins somewhat resembled the letter A. The tail seemed tattered with four trailing parts, the inner ones being smaller than the outer. She also had a huge mouth full of rarely seen, sharp, triangular teeth. Her eyes were small, yellow, and shadowed with black.

Groudon was a massive, bipedal, dinosaur-like creature with a gray underside, and the rest of his body covered in bright red, segmented plates of thick skin which act as armor on the rest of his body. There were also huge spikes that ran along the sides of his head, body, and tail. He had four claws on each hand, three claws on each foot, and four dozer-like blades on the end of his large tail, just like Kyogre, Groudon's jaws were lined with sharp pointy triangular teeth, and his eyes were a bright yellow color. Groudon also had blue marking stripes inside the seams of its armor plating.

Finally, Rayquaza was a large, mostly green, serpent-like draconic creature with red-tipped, rudder-like wings on his shoulders and down his body, and similarly-patterned fins on the tip of his tail. Yellow runic ring-like symbols ran across the length of Rayquaza's body and he had an additional yellow ring on top of his head. Rayquaza had two limbs with three-clawed carpals, and two long, flat, horn-like structures on his head, with two smaller horns below them. Rayquaza had a prominent line of bright red teeth with two discernible fangs on the tip of his upper snout. He had eyes with a prominent black sclera, bright piercing yellow irises and black pupils. "Wow, they're _amazing_," Ash commented. "It looks like something is missing though…"

Latios smirked. "Their size, or an accurate comparison of it," he answered as he inserted an image of Ash himself into the drawing beside Kyogre, to give him an accurate size comparison.

Ash's jaw dropped comically. "They're… seriously _huge_!" He exclaimed in surprise.

Latios laughed. "That they are," he said as he withdrew his power from Ash's mind. He paused, froze and then looked around, his gaze sharp.

Ash didn't notice Latios' odd reaction and just kept looking at the chamber's details. "This is so cool…"

"That it is," Alden nodded, feeling kind of left out from the conversation that Ash was having with his Pokémon. "I can't wait to start examining all this carefully…. There's so much to find out… but that will have to wait for tomorrow… it's very late and quite a lot has happened. We should go back to the Pokémon Center and try to sleep through what's left of the night."

Ash nodded. "Yeah, I agree, right Latios?" He asked. He got no answer. "Latios?" He turned and saw Latios looking around the chamber slowly, too focused on whatever he was paying attention to hear Ash's call. Ash blinked and walked up to him. "Um, Latios?" He asked again, grabbing the sides of his head and turning him to look at his eyes directly.

Latios blinked, his eyes refocusing on Ash. "Hello?" Latios asked awkwardly.

Ash laughed. "You kinda spaced out or something, are you okay?"

Latios nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Is something wrong?" Ash asked, frowning.

Latios frowned. "Sorry about that Ash, it's just that I really don't like the way this place feels…" he answered. "I picked up something I'm seriously not liking."

Ash blinked. "I don't understand, this place feels normal to me," Ash said to the still somewhat nervous eon dragon.

Latios pulled back from the chamber's entrance, letting Professor Alden and Ash exit. He was still glowing to provide a form of light in the dark night. "Ash, I am a psychic, I can feel things that may make no sense to most humans… I can't help but feel…that something's here, like we're being watched. I honestly don't like this feeling one bit. Maybe Latias could sense more than I can since she's more sensitive, especially with her empathy ability. Leaving that aside, I'm feeling that something's here, and I don't know what, but whatever it is I don't like it," Latios explained. "I think we should just go back to the Center, Latias is waiting for us."

Pikachu tilted his head. "That's weird. Are you sure, Latios?"

"I'm sure, Pikachu," Latios answered, looking at the Electric-type.

Ash sighed. "Let's just go back to the Pokémon Center. I'm hungry, I need some dinner before going to sleep," he announced.

Pidgeot's beak dropped in disbelief. "Ash, you ate before we stared training."

"But all this fighting made me hungry!" Ash whined.

His three Pokémon laughed. "Yep, that's our Ash," Pikachu commented amusedly. "Let's get going, then."

Ash nodded and walked beside Latios. The dragon lowered his levitation a few feet so Ash could comfortably hop onto his back and get settled. "Okay, let's go," Ash told his Pokémon, smiling.

"Hey, Ash, how am I supposed to go? It's not a long walk back to Oldale Town but its night and I'm tired from the day's experiences… or night's experiences," Alden spoke up, scratching the back of his head Mareepishly, certainly not looking forward to walking back to town in the dark while Ash flew comfortably on the dragon's back.

Ash hummed as he thought for a bit. "Hey Latios, think you can carry both of us?" He asked.

Latios shook his head. "I can, but I refuse to carry another human that isn't you or Bianca."

Ash frowned. "Okay, then… Pidgeot, think your wing is fine enough to fly Alden back to Oldale?" Ash asked the avian. "You did say it was fine when I asked how you were."

Pidgeot nodded. "It's just a minor ache, I should be fine to carry him to Oldale town. It's a pretty short flight anyway, don't worry Ash," She answered as she lowered herself slightly to let Alden on her back. Since he was taller than Ash, it was harder to get a firm fit but Pidgeot was big enough, so they managed, and thus they flew back to the town.

…

A few minutes later, once everyone was in Oldale Town, in front of the Pokémon Center…

"There, all tied up," Latias announced, pulling back as the five unconscious Grunts were tied firmly together on the ground. "All done."

Ash tilted his head. "If they're all knocked out, why do you bother tying them up?" He asked.

"In case they wake up," Latias answered, smiling at him. "And also so the police can take them in easier."

Ash nodded. "Ah…"

Latios hummed, looking at the Grunts fixedly. He still remembered the vivid comments of the Houndoom about Groudon. Were the guys of this odd organization looking for Groudon? He narrowed his eyes as they glowed, intruding into the minds of all the captured grunts and reading them completely, filtering anything useless out and focusing mainly on their organization, their goals, and Groudon. "Interesting…" he whispered as he read through the minds of the five, acquiring tons and tons of information.

Nurse Joy smiled and walked up to Ash. "I can't thank you and your Pokémon enough for saving all of us. You've got quite the team there Ash, when I registered you for the Hoenn league I can now easily see why you ranked so well in the Silver Conference," She told him, a gentle and kind tone to her voice.

Ash grinned happily. "It was my pleasure to help, Nurse Joy!" He said cheerfully.

Nurse Joy nodded. "Could you release all your Pokémon?" She asked. "I'd like to see if the ones still in their Pokéballs need any treatment after the battles they fought." Ash nodded and released Larvitar and Phanpy. Nurse Joy hummed as she examined Ash's six Pokémon. "They all need some treatment and rest. Would you like me to tend to them before you go to sleep for the rest of the night?"

Ash nodded. "Yes please, Nurse Joy. All of us need a nice rest," he agreed.

Nurse Joy smiled. "I must admit… your Pokémon are some of the happiest I've seen in a long while. The way they look at you, the way they hold themselves and the way they act…you're an outstanding trainer. It's very clear your Pokémon love you very much," she praised the boy.

Ash grinned happily. "Thanks!" He beamed. To assert her point, all of his Pokémon nuzzled against him, causing him to laugh.

Nurse Joy looked at them one last time, also laughing softly at how they acted, and then returned her gaze to Ash. "As thanks for what you did today I'll give you a suggestion, a new attack you should try to teach to some of them," Nurse Joy began, immediately catching Ash's total attention.

"Oh? What attack?" Ash asked eagerly.

"Your Pokémon love you a lot, it's very clear. Because of that, I'd suggest you teach some of them the attack; Return," Nurse Joy told him.

Ash blinked. "Return? Isn't that what's said to return them to their Pokéballs?" He asked, confused.

His Pokémon rolled their eyes in amusement as Nurse Joy laughed softly. "No, you see, Return is a Pokémon attack that any Pokémon can learn. It's a Normal-type physical move. The reason I suggest this move for your Pokémon is because they'd wield it very effectively, because Return's power is increased the more the Pokémon using it loves and cherishes their trainer. Your Pokémon clearly love you, so a Return attack used by them ought to be at its maximum power," the Pokémon Nurse suggested. "The Pokémon I'd suggest to learn that attack is your Pidgeot, as the type and category of the attack suits her the most."

Ash's eyes widened slightly as he heard that. "Wow that sounds like a very interesting move. I'll keep it in mind. Thanks Nurse Joy!" He beamed happily, grinning at her.

"You're welcome, it's my way of saying thanks for your actions tonight," Nurse Joy said back.

Ash nodded at her. "So, Pidgeot?" He asked, just to be sure.

"Yes, out of all of your team, by typing and attack category, Return fits her the best, but if you chose to teach it to more of them that's okay," the nurse answered, smiling. "Now follow me into the center, I'd like to tend to your Pokémon. Officer Jenny should be here any minute to pick the villains up," she said as she turned and walked back to the Pokémon Center.

Ash, Bianca and May followed her and soon Ash's six Pokémon followed her in as well, though Latios spared the Team Magma grunts one last look, his eyes worried as his mind raced with thoughts about the organization and everything he had just learned about Team Magma and their plans for Groudon, and also from their minds he learned of the existence of their rivals, Team Aqua.

"Hey, think I can have dinner?" Ash called out to the Nurse.

Nurse Joy paused and turned to look at him in surprise; he chuckled and rubbed the back of his head Mareepishly. "Sure, that too," she said finally. Ash grinned happily.

…

After around half an hour, Ash had his promised second dinner and all of his Pokémon had received a well-earned treatment. Officer Jenny had also taken the captured Team Magma members away, though she had been very surprised that everything had already been dealt with. Now it was finally time to go to sleep. The room they had gotten had two bunk beds. May chose the top one on the right side of the room to sleep in while Bianca slept at the lower bed of the same one. That left the other bunk bed entirely for Ash and his Pokémon. Ash and Pikachu took the lower one while Latias and Latios stayed on the top one.

After a few more minutes, everyone was sound asleep, except for one. Latias shivered and opened her eyes, glancing around the dark room, her enhanced legendary sight allowing her to see in the gloom. She frowned as her empathy began to pick up feelings that she did not like. The air around them had an odd feeling to it… she had no idea how to describe it, but there was an unmistakable feeling of malice in the air.

"Latias, are you okay?" Latios whispered to her, having being woken up by her anxiousness and moving around.

Latias frowned. "Brother… I'm feeling weird… my psychic senses are screaming at me…"

Latios nodded and looked around, and noted that for a second he felt the exact same way he had felt back at the Oldale Ruins. His eyes narrowed, trying to comprehend what was happening. His eyes glowed as he spread his senses across the Pokémon Center, and soon Latias joined in, doing the same. But neither could pick up anything that could be dangerous to them. "Whatever it is its worrying… but there's nothing around. Maybe some Ghost Pokémon. Let's go back to sleep sis," Latios said finally.

Latias nodded, but she couldn't help but whimper slightly. "Latios, I'm… scared…"

Latios smiled and licked her cheek a couple of times affectionately. "It's okay sweetie, I'm here," he said soothingly, and gently pulled Latias closer to him, resting his arm and wing on top of her protectively. Latias smiled and snuggled closer to her older brother, and closed her eyes while letting out a soft happy sigh. Latios kissed and licked her cheek and face a few times to calm her, and then arched his neck around Latias and pressed tightly against her to let her feel his presence. "Good night sister, I love you," he said tenderly.

"I love you too brother," Latias answered as she made the effort to fall asleep, it wasn't easy, but she managed. Soon Latios followed, though he kept his psychic senses sharp, just in case.

…

As Ash, Latios, Latias and everyone else fell asleep, none of them except for the Eon siblings felt the presence that was intently watching them, completely invisible to the eyes of mortals and the very living world itself. Floating calmly just outside the window of the group's room was a spirit, an astral projection to be precise.

The spirit looked at the group fixedly, not losing them from its spectral sight for even a single second, but then its gaze focused solely on Latias and Latios. "_Them_…" the spirit muttered in an angered and venomous tone at the sight of the Eon twin dragons, again unheard to anyone without the very specialized senses and abilities required to see and interact with a faint spirit.

A sudden surge of rage coursed through the spirit, along with an unmistakable aura of malice and evil, drawn from the spirit's very essence. To anyone with the abilities to see it, it'd appear as if a swirl of pure darkness flowed from the spirit, outlining it in a twisted dark purple aura. "How is it that those two are _still _alive? How! Hmm, but if they're here now… maybe they killed _him_…"

The spirit paused for a second, a surge of excitement running through it at whatever idea it was thinking of, but then it growled silently, and a depressed and dark aura covered the dark spirit once more. "No… after holding strong for so many years, they wouldn't slip up so easily now. But I still have to make sure to check on it, just in case…"

The spirit turned around and looked at the far distance, and suddenly it flickered out and disappeared from the outside of the Pokémon Center, and near instantly it reappeared just outside the Oldale ruins chamber. It looked at the place with an almost excited expression, as after all, that's the reason the spirit had appeared, having sensed that someone had finally opened its chamber.

It entered the chamber, looking at the place with a sense of nostalgia. A small feeling of pleasure ran through the spirit as it gazed at the chamber it had ordered crafted so many eons ago, during its lifetime. It came to the back of it, looking at the large carved drawing, its stare focused on what had been itself in the drawing, the small human drawn there holding out the orbs between the three titanic legendaries. "Someone found the tablet I hid here… if it's the correct humans who found it… then it will prove very beneficial for me and my future goals… it will lead the humans who got it to find where I hid my three sacred orbs to control Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza. This bodes well for me."

It turned and floated to the exit of the chamber, once again watching quietly in the direction of the human settlement of Oldale. "I need to go and see for myself who are the humans that have my inscriptions and determine if it is prudent or not to let them uncover my sacred orbs, though…" The feeling of malice around the spirit increased to a swirl of hatred and darkness that emanated from its very core, a pure feeling of blinding fury. "It's a shame that Latias and Latios are alive, but I can still use them to my advantage… I can still use them to reach my goals… and most importantly, fulfill my greatest ambition… get my revenge on that damn _mother_ of theirs!" The spirit growled as the dark aura around it turned even darker, the mention of Latios and Latias's mother infuriating it greatly. "I hope the father Latios is_ finally_ dead. It'd make everything a lot easier."

It turned and gave the Oldale ruins and chamber one last gaze, then a spiritual dark laugh echoed, again to be heard by no one living. "The time has come…" The spirit began, a spiral of dark power looming ominously around it as it said its next words. "I will have… _my revenge!" _With that, the spirit flickered out and disappeared, leaving the place as if no one had even been there, save for an ominous wind that rustled forebodingly through the nearby trees, a chilling sound that seemed to lend a sense of darkness to the surrounding area for a moment, before it faded out of existence, leaving the night sounding exactly the same as it had before...

…

Meanwhile, aboard the Team Magma helicopter that was already dozens of miles away from Oldale Town…

Tabitha laughed. "Success! Mission complete!" he declared as he gazed upon the tablet they had gotten from the ruins, excited that they gotten it.

One of the other two Grunts with him sighed. "But Field Commander, we lost more than _half_ the team to that kid," he said gloomily.

Tabitha nodded. "Yeah, that was something I didn't expect in such an easy profile mission. But depending on what's written here in this tablet and the other winnings of this mission, their sacrifice will be worth it," he said back. "Plus, this is a really good jab to the other Admins of the team, Courtney and Mack!" He declared, grinning. "This will get me named second in command of Team Magma, over them!"

The other Grunt blinked. "Weren't there four Field commanders? What about Brodie?" He asked.

Tabitha shook his head. "He's a high ranked specialist, he's not an Admin." He shivered. "And he's a gay cross-dressing freak," he added uneasily.

The first Grunt frowned. "Aside from the Tablet, what were the other winnings?" He asked curiously.

"First, we saw two Legendaries, Leader Maxie will be most interested in that," Tabitha began. "And both teams recorded the fight they had with the Latios and the Latias, giving us a fair idea of their battle prowess. And also, we tested the effectiveness of the attack forces of Team Magma, and also the new armors our Pokémon have… which turned out to be a total disappointment. I'll definitely file a big complaint about that!" Tabitha finished.

The second Grunt looked at Tabitha in confusion. "What's so important about the Latios and Latias? Our target's Lord God Groudon, not them."

Tabitha smirked. "Legendary Pokémon are more complicated than we give them credit for. They could prove a huge help for finding our way to Lord God Groudon, but first we need to see what Leader Maxie thinks," he answered, connecting his visor to a small port in the side-wall of the Helicopter. A screen lowered from the ceiling and began to play back the recordings of the battle Latias had fought on the left half, and Latios' fight on the right half. "This is gold…" he muttered.

"Okay," The Grunt answered. "But go-" He paused, freezing slightly, then shivered.

Tabitha's eyes narrowed as his hand reached for one of his Pokéballs. "Did you feel that?"

The other Grunt shivered. "Yeah, I'm getting Zangoosebumps."

Tabitha looked around for a bit. "I've got the faintest idea that we're being watched… I don't know, it kind of feels like that…"

The second Grunt shrugged. "We can't see or hear anything, it's probably nothing. Maybe it's just the mental trauma of the Latios almost getting us playing tricks on us."

Tabitha sighed. "You're probably right. Let's go back to the mobile Headquarters and start examining this tablet," he announced, wondering what new information they'd find.

The black helicopter kept flying in the sky, disappearing into the dark night…unaware that they were being followed…

* * *

><p><strong>Author Notes:<strong> Chapter's up! How was this chapter? Liked it? :D

Also, just as a little side comment I'd like to add. Keep in mind that this is a very large story, and soon it'll start showing its development with my personal ideas (and make itself different than the anime, as I won't make a plain rewrite of the Hoenn anime).

That means that there will be some people who will not like the stuff I add or change. Keep in mind that I can't please everyone, and that while you don't like some details, someone else may love that very same thing. I write what _I_ believe is right. After all, it's my Fanfic. What I can promise you is that I'll always write it to the best of my ability.

This closes the two-chapter arc of the Team Magma fight. _Next chapter, Ash vs. Norman!_


	6. First Hoenn Gym Battle! Ash vs Norman!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.**

"Speech"

_'Thoughts'_

_"Telepathy" _

**Author Notes:** Chapter 6! Ready and here! =) Woohoo!

And, I'd like to announce I've gotten four beta-readers! xD Yes. I have **4 BETA-READERS**. Hahahah xD Ri2, Shakari, csigamer1990 and Soldier Of The Future. **Thanks to all of you. **And I've made a pretty nice structure for the way my chapters are checked, so I'm happy. And it's efficient too! Yay! Thanks betas! :D

Enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter 6 - First Hoenn Gym Battle! Ash vs Norman!**

* * *

><p>"Petalburg City should be just past that hill," May informed the group, smiling kindly to them.<p>

"We're here at last! It's Petalburg City!" Ash exclaimed happily with a small sense of impatience. He ran as fast as his legs could take him up the hill and quickly reached the top of it, which presented him with a scenic view of the city on the other side, a city in which his first Hoenn Gym challenge resided.

"Yeah!" Pikachu agreed enthusiastically, giving a toothy grin. "Those Houndoom from last night were a very nice warm up for the gym over there. Let's go for the win!"

Ash nodded rapidly. "Yep! The first Hoenn Gym Badge is mine!" The trainer shouted happily. "Let's go, there's not a single second to lose!" He added cheerily as he walked down the road that would lead him into the city. Latias giggled childishly and shook her head, very amused at Ash's overeager attitude to get to the city and his first gym; it reminded her of how eager he was before getting his last badge, the Rising Badge from Blackthorn Gym, back in Johto. Latios just followed along silently, not as cheerful or enthusiastic as Latias, Pikachu or Ash.

"Hey Ash! Do you mind slowing down for us!?" Bianca yelled in exasperation, gasping heavily for breaths as she reached the top of the same hill."What's with the rush?" She asked between pants. She definitively wasn't used to walks like this yet.

"My badge is waiting for me, that's what's with the rush," Ash answered, stopping mid-step as he turned back to look at herwith a sense of enthusiasm and edginess. "It's already noon, I want it today! I hate it when I have to wait until the next day to battle Gym Leaders!"

May frowned as she caught up with Bianca, also panting heavily from exhaustion; she had the misfortune of having to drag her bike with her. "Ash, the gym is not going to go anywhere," she said, glaring at him.

Ash pouted. "But the daylight is going away," he countered, looking at the sun, high up in the sky. Due to the interruption in the night made by Team Magma, the group had gone to bed really late and thus, to compensate for the tiring experience, had slept in past midday.

Bianca glared at Ash in a really frightening way, prompting Ash to hide behind Latias. "Ash," she began in a steely voice. "We are _going_ to slow down, okay?" Her tone of voice left zero room for arguing. Ash nodded rapidly, gripping Latias' wing tightly.

"Ash, remember that neither of them are used to long-distance walks like you are," Latias chided him. "They're both very tired. Even if we slow down, we have enough sunlight to get to the gym in time, okay Ash?" She told him kindly, smiling sweetly.

Ash sighed, knowing he had lost the argument. "Okay Latias," he conceded with a defeated tone.

May blinked, looking in great interest at the red dragoness and Ash. "You know Ash; it's still pretty weird seeing you talk to Pokémon like that, it's... like it's something casual for you."

Ash chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his head. "I get that comment a lot," he replied meekly. "And yeah, it's an everyday thing for me. Guess I should consider myself lucky."

May tilted her head to the side as she focused on Ash's eyes and got a good look at them. She noticed how the irises had a reddish coloration when she looked at them from the right angle. It was an odd feature and the brown-haired girl only wondered how such a rare coloration was possible."Wow, you've got really pretty eyes Ash," May commented. "And a really odd color, darkish red would make an awesome fashion combination with the right clothes."

Ash paused and blinked at the rather unexpected comment. "Uh... thanks?" He said uneasily, uncertain of how to properly reply to such a compliment.

Bianca laughed at Ash's expression before turning her attention towards May."You just noticed that now?" She asked in amusement.

"Yeah," May answered, chuckling Mareepishly. "I didn't really pay attention to them yesterday, and it's not like I'd expect to find something this interesting if I looked at them closely, they seem plain black from a distance."

"Hey, I know I have red eyes and it's a cool feature and all, but can we continue to the Pokémon gym?!" Ash exclaimed with his raring-to-go self once again, raising his hands dramatically and pointing at the city. Latias and Pikachu simply laughed at his gesture.

Bianca chuckled. "Okay, okay, you win Ash, let's go," she said. "But let's take it easy, my feet are killing me."

"Latios can carry you," Ash commented as the group started walking down the road again, not at a pace he'd like, but at least they were on the move now.

"Yes, he can," Bianca admitted as she felt the soreness of her feet wearing into her nerves numbly. "But I don't want to seem like I can't take a walk since that'd make me look weak. Plus, I need to get used to this if I'll travel with you from now on and this is the only way that will happen."

"_And we're about to enter a city. We'll turn invisible when we do so,"_ Latias added via telepathy. _"Right, Latios?"_ She asked, and frowned when she got no answer from him, making her blink and look at her slightly older sibling in confusion. He was floating a good distance in front of them, lost in his own train of thoughts.

Bianca nodded at her in agreement. "Yes, that too Latias. A floating girl would look very weird."

May blinked in confusion, looking at Bianca as she did so. "Yes, what?"

"Latias talked to me telepathically, I was agreeing with her," Bianca explained.

"Ah," May muttered in acknowledgment, then turned to look at Ash. "So your battle's a big thing?" She asked curiously.

Ash nodded eagerly with a reaction of courage and pride. "Yes! When I win against the Gym Leader at the Petalburg Gym, I'll be given a badge as a result of the victory. When I've gathered eight of those badges from different Gyms, I'll qualify for the Hoenn League," Ash explained to her in simple terms. "Once I reach the League, I'll be competing against plenty of other trainers for the championship title!"

May hummed in response to the information Ash had explained to her. "How did you do in your last league?" She questioned him, wondering how good of a trainer he was.

"My last league was the Johto League Silver Conference. I placed third in the tournament," Ash answered proudly, grinning widely. "It was so great to make it that far…"

May's eyes widened slightly. She wasn't really into stuff like that, but she knew from her little brother that simply getting into even the sixteenth place of a Pokémon League was an arduously difficult feat that required much more than just luck and powerful Pokémon. "Wow, really?"

Ash nodded affirmatively. "Yep."

"That's really amazing…" May commented, realizing that perhaps Ash was an even better trainer than she had thought. "Well, having Pokémon the likes of Latios and Latias… it's easy to see how you got so far."

"Just one thing, though. I only used Latios in the Silver Conference," Ash corrected her. "Latias was… uh, our team moral support. That and she wasn't exactly a party member of my team at that time."

Latias giggled childishly, feeling slightly flattered from Ash's mention of her 'role' at that time. _"A most important job,"_ she said happily while grinning sweetly at him.

Ash laughed and gently stroked her neck with his gloved hand. "Of course it was, Latias."

Bianca frowned upon hearing a mention of the older blue Eon dragon. "Speaking of which…uh, Latios? He has been awfully quiet the entire trip."

"Now that you mention it…" Ash admitted. "He's been really quiet." He looked around and saw that Latios was flying down the path a good distance in front of the group, as if he hadn't noticed they had made a quick stop earlier. "Hey, Latios!" He called out loudly. "Latios!"

Latios jerked visibly and looked around, realized his mistake and quickly flew back to the group. _"Uh, sorry,"_ he apologized, lowering his gaze slightly.

Bianca laughed as she put her hand on his upper neck and started to scratch his feathers, making him lightly arch to her touch. "It's okay Latios. What are you so distracted about? You've been terribly quiet and out of the group," she asked, her voice soft.

Latios sighed wearily. _"Something I learned during the night when those packs of idiots attacked us…" _He answered slowly, his telepathic voice low and mixed with a feeling of anger and worry.

"Oh, what is it?" Bianca asked curiously. Ash, Pikachu, and Latias edged closer, interested in listening to what the large Dragon and Psychic-type had to articulate. May scowled a bit since she felt left out of the conversation, mainly because she couldn't hear a thing.

"_When we had them all captured and tied up, I wanted to find out the motives behind their actions, so I read their minds before we entered the Pokémon Center and left them for Officer Jenny,"_ Latios began, speaking telepathically so that Bianca could understand him without needing separate translating, but before he could continue he was interrupted by Ash.

"Latios! I thought I told you I didn't like it when you harmed others like that!" Ash reprimanded the Eon dragon, crossing his arms with a look of disapproval.

Latios winced slightly, remembering how angry he had gotten to the point he almost killed the Team Magma grunts and their Pokémon, but he dismissed that and focused on answering Ash. He shook his head. _"No Ash, I didn't harm them. I read their minds _mostly_ painlessly. Anyway, I did that to learn the reason behind their attack and also to learn where they were from. What I found out was very worrying," _he continued after pausing for a moment. _"They were members of a criminal organization called Team Magma. Their goal is to use Groudon to expand the land of the world enough to nearly erase the world's oceans, which is astoundingly stupid to do. The sea is vital to life and doing that would kill millions of Pokémon that live in the water, not to mention affect all the humans that rely on sea resources. With their knowledge and information about those two… it's a pretty dangerous situation. I've been thinking about that."_

Ash gasped in shock, with Latias and Pikachu mimicking his response. Bianca's eyes widened with complete disbelief. "That's bad… I think. What's the point of expanding the land?" Ash asked with doubt.

Latios shrugged and sighed_. "I have no idea but they're trying to do it, and what makes it very dangerous is that they've got a very good idea of how to do it."_ The Eon dragon frowned contemptuously. _"And that's not the worst of it. There's another criminal organization that are big rivals of Team Magma referred to as Team Aqua. Their goal is practically the same with the exception that they want Kyogre and they're going to expand the ocean by sinking the land. Whatever their motives are, it's best to not know of the aftermath if their ambitions become a reality."_

"We've got to stop them both!" Ash shouted in alarm. Bianca, Pikachu and Latias stared at Latios, visibly troubled as well.

"_There are a couple problems with that. I don't think we can stop them as we are now,"_ Latios began unhappily. _"First, their numbers are vast. We fought a single attack team of eight and had troubles dealing with them, and we technically only beat five of them since three got away. They've got a_ lot_ more than that. I doubt we can fight so many opponents. We'd be very easily overwhelmed. And second, according to what the grunts whose minds I read knew, the field commander of the team knows at any given moment the location of their main base, which is a colossal machine that can move around, which we can't track down since I was unable to read his mind. The rest of the bases they have through Hoenn are too well defended. And that's only Team Magma, I know very little about Team Aqua as none of the grunts knew anything useful, so I have no idea who they are or how to even begin to find them," _Latios explained, his tone saddened.

Ash sighed in dismay. "So what are we gonna do? I don't just want to leave it as it is," he muttered miserably. "We can't let them just run around free as they plan to hurt the world!"

"We could tell the police," Bianca suggested helpfully.

"_They already know,"_ Latias answered to her idea. _"They just arrested five of them yesterday."_

Bianca nodded and scratched her head with a dumbfounded expression. "Oh, right."

"_It's not like we can do much Ash," _Latios resumed._ "We can't find them and even if we did, they're too powerful for us to deal with them _for now_,"_ the blue-colored dragon spoke with a tone of reasoning. _"But if anything, we have some luck on our side. Their plans have only begun to unfold, so there's plenty of time for us to plot a strategy to halt them. Somehow, I hope."_

Ash nodded, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "I guess so… we have some time to deal with them… but what if time runs out?"

Latios hummed before answering his trainer's question. "_For now… we hope it doesn't. We can gather information on them as we travel throughout Hoenn and once I know enough about them to have a solid base of data and intelligence… we can go and see Groudon or Kyogre so we can warn them or maybe go and see Rayquaza to warn him of this… we'll find a way."_

Pikachu frowned and facepalmed. "I just can't believe it…" He muttered while shaking his head.

Ash blinked in confusion, as did Latias and Latios. "What?" the Pokémon trainer asked.

"There's got to be hundreds of Pokémon trainers in this region right now, if not thousands, all of them trying for the league, and out of all of them… Why is it _always us _that have to run into the bad guys and deal with them? Can't we get a well-deserved break for once?" Pikachu questioned in frustration and irritation. Everyone sweatdropped.

Ash frowned, but he found himself agreeing. "He has a really good point, now that I think of it."

"_Let's just not complain and keep going on our way,"_ Latios suggested. _"If we have to deal with them, then we'll do so when we run into them."_

"Yeah, since we can't do much about Team Aqua or Magma right now… let's just go to the gym. If what Pikachu said is true, we'll eventually run into them again and then we'll figure out how to deal with them then," Ash announced, turning to walk in the direction of Petalburg City.

"I guess," Bianca admitted. "There's not much we can do."

Latios smiled as a means to bring encouragement to his friends. _"Don't worry Bianca, Ash, I know you want to do something about it, but right now it's just out of our reach, but know that we _will_ do something when the time is right. Since I don't know much about all this, there's no point in going to bother other Legendaries with incomplete information and potentially false and unconfirmed information,"_ he said, and then his eyes narrowed._ "But when we know enough, we'll go see Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza. We might lack power but they don't. They'll know what to do."_

Ash nodded. "I guess that's all we can do for now. Just wait it out. In the meantime, there's a badge to win."

Pikachu frowned. "Latios, do you even know how to find Groudon, Kyogre or Rayquaza?" He asked curiously, looking at the dragon.

"_Well, I honestly have no idea how to find Groudon and Kyogre,"_ Latios answered. _"I have met Kyogre, but it was her who visited me at Alto Mare, not the other way around. But I do know how to find Rayquaza. He lives in a massive draconic kingdom he rules known as Sky Pillar. I've never been there, but it's a sacred land of dragons, it's said any dragon can find the path there."_

Pikachu nodded slowly, feeling very glad they had a Legendary they could contact. "Well, you're a dragon. So in theory, if you want to find Sky Pillar… you'll know how to get there?" He asked, his voice brimming with hope.

"_Yeah,"_ Latios answered optimistically.

"_But…"_ Latias began. _"We have to take the worst into account, just in case so we have a backup plan, what if we can't find Sky Pillar and Rayquaza for some reason?"_

Latios bit his lip, he hadn't considered that. _"That'd… be really bad, then we'd have no one to contact and ask for help."_

"What about your father?" Pikachu asked. "He might be dead and trapped in the Soul Dew, but he's _there._"

Latios nodded. _"That… could be it, a really good suggestion. The problem is we've never actually talked to him, it's just him usually pulsing power through the Soul Dew to approve or disapprove of things, or hint what to do with vibrations of power… giving directions with something like that will be difficult,"_ he lamented. _"So, I doubt it can really be of use."_

"Darn, there goes your dad," Pikachu said sadly. "Wait, your dad… hey, what about your mother? If she's a Legendary, which I suppose, she could be of help."

Latios frowned sadly, a little depressed. _"We… we never knew who our mother was, I have no idea. My dad is there, but I don't know my own mother. I tried asking the Soul Dew who she was, or asking Ho-Oh, but neither ever gave me a straight answer."_

Pikachu winced. "Sorry to hear that. So, we'll have to stick to hoping we can find Sky Pillar then?"

Latios nodded back with a faint grin. _"Yeah, Ho-Oh said that any dragon can get there, and there's her to run for help too. Ho-Oh would know what to do as well."_

"Bigger and stronger Legendaries like them should be able to defeat all of Team Aqua and Magma with no problem… I hope," Bianca concurred, nodding once as she hoped that was in fact true.

May blinked in total confusion, looking between everyone and not really understanding the concept of the conversation since she was left out entirely. "What are you all babbling about? It's really weird when you look at Latios so silently and then talk back, even if I know he's talking with his mind."

Bianca laughed in amusement, picturing how the scene would look from the perspective of someone who didn't understand the perception of telepathy. "He was talking to us telepathically, but he can't speak openly with strangers. In the meantime, he can only speak to us for now."

May nodded. "Ah…" she muttered, and then observed the rapidly approaching city with a keen eye. They were already entering the outskirts of the metropolitan area. "Hey, I need to go and do some errands in the city so I'll catch you at the gym, okay?"

Ash paused for a moment or two and looked at her in surprise. "Wait, what?" He asked, taken off guard.

May laughed. "I'll just go for a bit, I've got some things to do! I already guided you to the city like I said I would, but if you need additional directions on how to get to the gym, just follow the public signs, okay?" Ash nodded dumbly, still rather surprised by the sudden actions of the beginner trainer. "See ya!" May hopped on top of her bike and began to ride away, taking a great lead ahead of the group.

Bianca looked on as the younger girl rode away and into the city. "I wonder what that was about?" she asked in mild curiosity.

Ash shrugged. "She said she'd catch us back at the gym, so let's go to it! I need my badge!" Ash announced, continuing his walk towards the city. The group followed him, Latias and Latios became invisible, as usual.

The walk across the large city was easy. Being a city that was very proud of its gym, the signs to get there were plentiful, and soon Ash found himself face to face with the Petalburg City Gym. The gym seemed to be like a regular house, in a rather Japanese-style. The walls were painted white with a blue roof; in the arc of the roof were several bright yellow decorative ornaments. The outside was surrounded with a wall made of sturdy rocks, giving the gym an antique-look. "So this is it? Weird, I'd have thought it'd be something more impressive," Pikachu commented as his eyes scanned the building all around.

"It's the Gym Leader that makes the Gym, not the building," Latios said. "After all, you fight the gym leader, not the place."

"So let's go in!" Ash announced with an enthusiastic voice, marching happily up the stairs until he was at the front door of the Pokémon Gym. He knocked on it a few times. "Hello! Anyone in there?" He yelled. Silence was his only answer. "Apparently there's no one in there…" He muttered, looking at the building and awaiting a response from someone.

Latios' eyes glowed for a second and a click was heard, signaling the door had been psychically unlocked. "_There, the door's open,"_ the Eon dragon said casually.

Bianca frowned at him. "I don't think it's very polite to just open people's doors like that Latios. There's a reason they're _locked_."

"_Not anymore it's not,"_ Latios answered, shrugging.

"Awesome! First Gym Badge, here I come!" Ash sang happily as he opened the large sliding door and stepped in.

Latios grinned when he noticed how wide the door had opened. "Hey, I think I can actually fit in through this door, why can't humans make more doors this wide?" He asked as he flew in. He had to adjust his huge wingspan a little, but the doorway was just big enough for him to fit in.

"Maybe because when they design their doors they are all very concerned in making sure a Latios can fit through them," Pikachu answered sarcastically, rolling his eyes. Latios glared at him while Latias giggled and followed them in, with a reluctant Bianca entering behind them.

Right after passing through the main door was a wide corridor which had another door at the far end, and in the middle of it was a very large door-less opening. "Hello! Anyone in here? I came for my battle and my gym badge!" Ash called loudly as he turned at the larger opening in the middle of the corridor and grinned at the sight that welcomed him, feeling delighted as the first thing that came into view was the gym's large arena. It was a plain, unadorned battlefield, with no elements or gimmicks to give advantage to a certain Pokémon type. The rest of the Gym's floor was made of finely polished wood. "Hey!" Ash screamed again. "Mister Gym Leader!"

Bianca frowned as she looked around. "It sounds like there's no one in here. Now we'll certainly get in trouble for breaking into the place like this, Ash!" She reprimanded the boy, putting both her arms on her hips and glaring at him.

Ash chuckled nervously as he turned to look at her, and promptly took a step back at her very intimidating look. "Sorry! I get really, _really_ eager when it's time to fight and get badges," he apologized, trying to put up an excuse.

"No, really?" Pikachu deadpanned sarcastically, eyes narrowing lazily. Latios snickered.

"One last time, okay Bianca?" Ash promised and before she could answer, he started hollering again. "Hello!" the trainer shouted, ignoring both of his Pokémon like he usually did whenever they bugged him, even if his act of ignoring them only seemed to further amuse them. "I'm here for my… uh, whatever this Gym's badge is named!" He yelled as loud as his vocal cords would allow him.

"Hey, could you keep it down!" A very young childish voice echoed across the building and interrupted them, making the group quickly turn to look back at the corridor they had come from, in the direction of the door at the far end.

"Uh, who's that?" Ash asked, secretly hoping it was the Gym Leader.

"I'm very busy watching Sil-" The voice began responding, but instantly froze when its owner rounded the entryway and got a full view of the group. "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" He squealed like a baby girl who just got a new doll and started jumping up and down repeatedly in pure happiness. "It's you! It's you!" He shrieked loudly, causing the group to wince and wonder if this young boy was possessed by a Ghost-type or something.

"OhmygoshIcan'tbelieveit! Itsreallyreally_really_you!" He screeched loudly and rapidly, almost ear-splittingly so. Latios gritted his teeth slightly from the shattering noises that bombarded his highly sensitive ears.

"You'redefinitivelyAshKetchum! ThetrainerwhohasaLatios! AnawesomeLegendaryPokemon!" He cried at a pace that basically jumbled his words into a mass of incoherent speech. "Mydreamcometrueistomeetyou! IwannaseeLatiosnow!"

Ash blinked a few times as he gazed down at the newcomer with a confused expression. "Whoa… wait a second there, talk slower, I can't understand a single word you're saying!" Ash interrupted, holding his arms out as he tried to calm down the very eager young boy before them. He seemed around seven years old, with large glasses, black and green sneakers, dark brown shorts, and, to the group's astonishment, a blue and white t-shirt with a Latios printed on it. Ash fidgeted when he guessed what was up, most likely another fanboy or fangirl. "Uh…" Ash voiced uneasily.

Latios silently laughed upon getting a clear sight of the boy's outfit. _"Nice, I like that kid's shirt. I guess I have fans now, huh?"_ he commented. Pikachu groaned, why didn't they meet a boy with a Pikachu shirt?

"_Because I'm more awesome,"_ Latios answered teasingly. Pikachu remained silent and decided not to argue more.

"Wow! IneverexpectedI'dseeyouinHoenn! Awesome! Totallyawesome!" The boy cried happily while running up to Ash and looking up at him with sparkling eyes full of admiration.

Ash took a step back in fear. "What? Talk slower! Who are you?" He asked, holding his arms out in front of him.

The boy took a deep breath to calm down, at least just a little. "I'm Max! And you're Ash Ketchum!" He exclaimed, pointing at Ash. "The_ totally_ awesome trainer who got third place in the Silver Conference despite being only_ eleven_ years old at the time! And you did it with a Legendary Pokémon! How can you get cooler than that! Well, you'd be cooler if you'd won, very sad you lost, but still, it's so cool!" Max spoke happily, still a little rapidly but it was at least somewhat more understandable now.

Bianca giggled at the sight. "Seems you have a new fan, Ash," she commented in amusement.

Ash blushed in embarrassment. "Wow… thanks."

Max leaned in closer to Ash. "When did you catch Latios exactly? How did you capture Latios? Where did you catch him? Why does he listen to you? Was it a tough fight? How do you train him? Does he know more attacks than what he used at the Silver Conference? Do you use Latios to travel around? Do you know any Latias? They say they come in pairs with a Latios! How strong is he right now? Is it true he can talk telepathically? Is he faster than light? Did he hold back during the fights so he didn't obliterate the competition? He should have! He's a Legendary! Why did he lose? How do you train him? Wait… I think already asked that. How is he now? Think you could have beaten Jon Dickson if he had fought in the battle? Think you could have been champion? Oh! Think you can defeat the Elite Four with Latios? And what about the Pokémon Champion? Can you beat Lance with Latios? What an epic fight! If you could do the Silver Conference again would you win it now? Is Latios here right now? He can turn invisible right? I saw it! I know he can! So he's here right? He has to be! I know it! Where is he?" Max asked rapidly, throwing an endless barrage of questions, one right after the other that Ash quickly got lost in. "Oh! Yay!" Max squealed. "Is he here? I know he is! He's really cool so he has to be! Really? Right? Oh! I wanna see him!" He demanded, grinning widely.

Ash paused and looked around uneasily. "Uh, what was the second question? Uh, forget it. Listen kid… I…" he began to say, but instead took a step back in confusion. "Why would I answer all that?"

"Well, because I'm none other than Max after all! Your number one fan, and of course, Latios' number one fan too! Hey! Can you autograph my t-shirt? My dad bought it for me at the Silver Conference!" Max said cheerfully, holding his Latios-themed t-shirt by the bottom and pulled on it to give Ash a clearer view.

Ash paused, looked at the shirt fixedly for a few seconds, and then frowned. "There were Latios shirts for sale?" He asked curiously, not remembering any of that during his stay in Silver Town.

Latios blinked in surprise. _"I didn't know that."_

Max nodded rapidly. "After you used Latios in the Conference, a few days later many stands and souvenir shops put lots of Latios stuff up for sale! Really, Latios was the totally best most cool and awesome event in the Silver Conference! He eclipsed everything on the news for days!" Max cried. "I even got a little figurine!" He announced joyfully. "And… loads of other stuff! You wouldn't believe it!"

"_Great, I've got lots of human publicity,"_ Latios moaned sarcastically. _"That explains why some people bug us a lot during the travels… well at least it's all on Ash, I'm very happy being invisible."_ Pikachu snickered in amusement.

"So, you were really there at the Silver Conference?" Ash questioned.

Max nodded once proudly. "Yes! Dad took me to see it live, and I had the delight of seeing both battles you used Latios in. Seriously, I was in the stands at the stadium where Latios was used!" Max grinned and squealed again, nearly breaking his glasses and the windows from how high-pitched it was. "I can't believe you're here! In Petalburg's gym! This is so awesome!" He grinned from ear-to-ear. He practically pounced on Ash and started pulling his shirt roughly. "Show me Latios! Show me Latios! Show me Latios!" he began to scream repeatedly in an uncontainable manner. Ash gulped nervously, having no idea how to pry the kid off him.

"_Psychic?"_ Latios offered, perhaps a little too eagerly.

"No," Ash answered immediately.

Max looked at him with tears in his eyes. "No? Why not?" He asked, hurt.

Ash facepalmed as Latios chuckled. "Not you! I was talking to Latios." He immediately regretted saying that.

"Awesome! Telepathy is real! So he's here!? Where!? I want to see him!" Max demanded as his impatience began to grow even farther, looking around in an attempt to spot the invisible dragon, but it was useless, since he was, well, _invisible_.

"Um… Max?" May asked slowly, standing in the doorway to the arena. "What are you doing?"

"Shut up sister! Can't you see I'm having a _total_ geek out here! This is the Latios guy from the Silver Conference!" Max said to her, squealing again in delight and tugging at Ash's shirt harder.

Bianca blinked. "Wait, brother?" She turned to May, and noticed she had come with company. "Is he your brother May?"

May nodded and walked to Ash, grabbed Max by the shoulders and pulled him off the Pallet Town trainer, holding the overeager boy firmly, pressing him to her chest. "Yes, he's my little brother Max," she answered, smiling slightly. She then turned to look at the people she had brought with her, a handsome dark-haired man in a red jacket and a pretty brown-haired woman in a yellow dress. "And these are my parents, Norman and Caroline," she introduced them; then she motioned to a teenage boy with brown hair. "And this is Kenny, a family friend who works here at the Gym."

Max grinned. "And my dad happens to be the totally awesome Gym Leader of Petalburg City!" He added proudly.

Ash's eyes bulged with shock. "Bwah?! Your _DAD_ is the Gym Leader?!"

"That's right," May answered proudly.

"Well, I did not see that coming," Pikachu remarked.

"I would have, if I could have read her mind…" Latios muttered. Latias frowned at him in disapproval.

"And why didn't you mention this earlier?" Bianca asked as Ash went into a near-catatonic state of shock.

"It didn't seem important," May said with a shrug. Ash's team facefaulted. "Anyway, Dad, these are the people I told you about, Ash and Bianca."

"Pleased to meet you, sir," Bianca said, bowing slightly.

"It's an honor to meet you, sir!" Ash said eagerly, causing Pikachu to roll his eyes.

Norman smiled. "The feeling is mutual. Thanks for the introductions, May," he said in an appreciative tone, then turned to Ash. "So, we finally meet, Ash. Max has been extremely excited about you ever since we went to see you fight at the Silver Conference."

May sighed. "Way too excited. He didn't talk about anything else!"

Caroline, Norman's wife, laughed. "Give him a break May, he's only seven, let him get an idol," she said calmly in a gentle motherly tone. May nodded in reply at her mother's comment.

Max looked up to see May's face. "How come the girl with Ash knows your name? Wait, you traveled with them?" He asked his sister, his eyes widening.

May nodded in confirmation. "Yes, I did. From Littleroot Town to here," she answered.

Max's eyes sparkled with wonder and envy. "Did you meet Latios? I'm so jealous!" He shouted, now tugging at May's shirt.

May shrugged. "I met him, but I haven't really… been trying to relate to him. He's nice enough, but Latias seems much more approachable in a sense…" The younger brother froze completely on the spot the moment she mentioned the red Eon dragoness's presence. This caused the brown-haired girl to sigh in dismay. "I really shouldn't have said that…"

'_No, you shouldn't have,'_ Latias thought wearily.

"OH MY GOSH!" Max screamed loudly, making everyone wince with his sudden uproar. "You have a _Latias_ too!? Just how much more awesome can you get?! I need a Latias shirt now! Or a Latias and Latios shirt, either works! Wait… Latios is cooler and more awesome I think… but Latias is also really great!"

Ash chuckled apprehensively. "Yeah, I have a Latias too…" He confessed with a tone that resembled a combination of defeat and frustration.

Norman laughed at Max's hyper-sensed reaction. "Magnificent Ash, you're truly an outstanding trainer," he praised modestly. "And please excuse my son's behavior."

Ash grinned at the gym leader before explaining with, "It's perfectly fine, the girls' reaction in the Silver Conference was worse… I was just plain exhausted from trying to get away from them, or the reaction in Pallet Town but that one was manageable at least."

The father of Max and May chortled lightly. "So I take it you're here for a Gym battle? May mentioned something about that. It's an honor that you'll be competing in the Hoenn League."

Ash grinned. "Yep, I'm here for my Gym Badge! And I'll fight in the Hoenn League!" He declared excitedly. Max suddenly started squealing again. "What's with him?" Ash asked, starting to get tired of this. If anything, his ears were going numb from the constant drilling noise.

Suddenly Max looked between Ash and Norman. "This is _SO AWESOME_!" He screamed. "My two greatest idols will have a battle! So cool! Sorry Ash, but I'll side with my dad on this one. But don't worry; you and your Latios are still very cool."

"Hey!" Latios said in annoyance.

Ash blinked in confusion. "Oh… okay?" he asked confusedly.

Max grinned. "Yes! Now… please show me Latias and Latios! I wanna see them so badly!" He stated eagerly, looking at Ash very expectantly.

May pouted. "Max, I'm offended. I know that Latias and Latios are really cool Pokémon, but you haven't even mentioned or asked for my starter. I'm your sister!" She reprimanded him.

Max turned to look at her briefly. "Did you pick Treecko?" He asked, mildly curious, but not looking overly interested.

May shook her head. "Nope, I didn't."

"Then I'm not interested," Max told her, causing her to facefault as he turned back to Ash. "Please let me see Latios and Latias! They're Legendaries! It's the first time I'll have ever seen one!" He said happily. May glared at him in anger. Caroline and Norman laughed.

Bianca frowned. "Talking about eager kids… wow," she commented with a tone of humor. "He beats you by a longshot when you see gyms Ash," she added with smiling. Ash scratched the back of his head in awkwardness.

"Sorry about the unexpected introduction you received from him Ash, but Max gets very eager when it comes to Pokémon. Two Legendaries have him extremely excited," Caroline apologized, feeling slightly embarrassed at her youngest child's display. She hoped that it wouldn't alienate the youth in some manner.

"It's okay," Ash responded unobtrusively. "It's very nice he gets so happy over Pokémon."

Norman nodded and smiled. "Max, be patient. It's rude to ask like that."

Max pouted disappointedly but nevertheless obeyed his father. "Okay dad," he answered reluctantly.

"So May," Caroline began, turning to look at her beloved daughter. "Which Pokémon did you get from Professor Birch?" She asked, her tone one of absolute interest, in contrast to Max's attitude.

May smiled. "Oh, you'll see! He's a total cutie!" She exclaimed as she grabbed her only used Pokéball. "Go Torchic!" She hurled the Pokéball downwards, causing it to burst open and release the little Pokémon inside. He looked around and examined the new people in curiosity.

Norman smiled. "A Torchic huh? Interesting choice May. Raise him well, and he'll turn into a mighty Blaziken."

Caroline looked down at the tiny Fire-type appraisingly. "I think he's very cute. Good choice, May," she praised.

Max frowned as he knelt besides the Torchic. "Aw, a Torchic?" He frowned, examining the Fire-type. "But they're kinda lame. I would have so chosen a Treecko. They're awesome."

Torchic's eye twitched. "Meanie!" He cried as he pounced on Max and started pecking him.

"Ow! Ow!" Max cried, trying to defend himself from the pecks unsuccessfully as everyone but Norman and Caroline laughed. "Ow! Get it off!"

May reached down and picked Torchic up. "Hey, calm down. You're awesome too Torchic," she said softly. Torchic immediately ceased aggressions and looked at her with round, happy eyes.

Max twitched. "Ow… Peck is painful in the flesh, very different than TV and videogames…" He moaned in pain. Suddenly he bolted up and acted like nothing had happened. "So when's the battle!?" He asked loudly.

Norman chuckled and shook his head. "Sorry Max, you know I don't let you or anyone in the family watch Gym battles because that might distract the challenger," he reminded his son.

Max sighed sadly. "Please dad! He's Ash! And he has a _Latios!_" Max exclaimed. "And apparently a Latias," he added. "What if he uses them against you? I wanna see you fighting a Legendary!"

Norman paused and blinked, wondering how the hell he was supposed to fight a Latios. His mind started racing for a solution the topic. It was the first time such a powerful Pokémon would be used in a battle against him. "Hmm," he hummed.

"I promise I won't bother Ash during the battle, but let me watch this one! It's an ultra special one for me! Pretty please?" Max pleaded, and did a cute face.

Norman sighed. "If Ash allows it. Will you?" he asked, turning to Ash.

Ash shrugged. "Sure, I've fought with audiences before, it's nothing new to me," he answered, then smiled. "So yes, he can watch."

Max squealed happily. "Yay!"

Norman nodded. "Okay, but Max," he began, and then his tone turned very stern. "Behave." Max nodded.

Caroline walked to a bench at the side of the arena pressed against the wall. "Come here everyone," she said as she took a seat, patting the bench invitingly. Everyone followed her minus Ash and Norman.

"Oh, I'm so giddy!" Max said, trying to contain his excitement. "This is so cool!"

May nodded. "This seems fairly interesting, right Torchic?" She wiggled her arms a little, which were cradling the Fire-type comfortably.

"Yep!" Torchic chirped happily, even if May didn't understand him.

Norman waked to the other side of the arena. "Kenny, referee the match please," he said as he entered his trainer box.

Kenny nodded. "Of course, sir," he answered, walking to the middle of the battlefield across from the benches.

Ash smirked and walked towards his own area, the invisible Latias and Latios at his sides. "The first Hoenn Gym badge is gonna be mine, finally!"

Norman smiled and nodded. "That's the spirit, Ash!" He told him from the other side of the field. "I hope that enthusiasm holds strong over the battle!"

"Thanks!" Ash replied to him, nodding.

"This will be an official three versus three gym battle between the challenger, Ash Ketchum and the Gym Leader, Norman, with a Balance Badge being the prize! Only the challenger will be allowed substitutions!" Kenny announced loudly with a clear voice of formality. "Begin!"

Norman smirked, eager to test out Ash as an opponent. "You displayed impressive battle skills at the Silver Conference. Show me it was not a coincidence you made it to third place!"

Ash smirked back at him. "I promise you it was not coincidence, nor was it only my usage of Latios," he unveiled determinedly. "I will win!" Pikachu smiled and nodded in agreement.

Norman smiled, fairly eager himself for this Gym battle. He loved challenges like this, where the ones that came to battle him were full of determination to walk out with a Balance Badge. "We shall see Ash, we shall see. Go, Slakoth!" He shouted, hurling a single Pokéball towards the battlefield. The sphere popped open and released a small brown sloth-like Pokémon; it had brown shaggy fur with two darker stripes on its back and a large scruff of fur on its head. Slakoth's long arms and feet were each adorned with two very long and sharp claws. The Slakoth instantaneously dropped to the floor, its eyes half closed in a lazy expression as if he was about to fall asleep immediately.

"Wow, cool!" Ash said as he took out his Pokédex and pointed it at the Pokémon before him.

"Slakoth, the Slacker Pokémon. It is generally found sleeping and few people have ever witnessed it in motion. It is said that looking at this Pokémon makes anyone drowsy," the little machine informed in a computerized and monotone voice.

Ash narrowed his eyes. "Not so cool now. Uh, if it's slacking around how am I going to fight it?" He pondered, looking at the Pokémon quizzically but said Pokémon didn't even bother looking back, since that would take too much effort on its part.

Latios shrugged disinterestedly. _"Just fight it and be done with it," _he suggested.

'_Okay?'_ Ash thought uncertainly. When Latios stayed silent he decided to send out his first Pokémon. He reached to his belt and took the corresponding Pokéball. "Go, Phanpy!" He shouted, hurling the Pokéball towards the middle of the arena. It popped open and released the small blue elephant-like Pokémon. The Slakoth frowned in disappointment and slowly and very lazily stood up. It seemed it was fighting time.

"I'm ready, daddy!" Phanpy chorused enthusiastically and happily, doing a few energetic skips.

"Awww!" Max cried unhappily. He had been expecting Latios to enter the fray the moment the battle began.

Caroline giggled, already guessing what was on Max's mind. "Max, you can't expect Ash to use his Latios from the start. You saw him in the Silver Conference, he likes to save him for last," she reminded him.

Max sighed, but nodded in agreement as he knew that was true. "Dad should easily push Ash to use his Legendaries then. After all, he's dad! I want to them fight!"

May chuckled. "I don't know Max, Ash is pretty good," she said teasingly. Torchic nudged closer to her lap. Max glared at her.

Norman looked at Ash, and then at the Pokémon he had sent out. "Your move, Ash," he said, crossing his arms and waiting patiently.

Ash nodded. "Okay then, Phanpy, let's go for the win! Use Rollout attack!" Ash shouted energetically. It had been a while since he had felt the thrill of a good Gym battle.

"Yes, daddy!" Phanpy cried happily as he ran towards Slakoth and jumped in the air. He curled into a tight ball upon landing and rolled towards Slakoth, kicking up a dust trail in his wake from the power of the move.

Caroline raised an eyebrow slightly. The small Pokémon looked powerful. "That's a tough little guy, especially for its size," she said. Bianca nodded.

Norman didn't seem very alarmed, however. "Slakoth, get lazy!" He countered.

Ash blinked in confusion. "Get Lazy? What? How's being lazy gonna help in battle?"

Slakoth yawned lazily as Phanpy came at him… and then simply collapsed to the floor, as if he had no energy to stand up. The lazy Pokémon looked at the incoming Ground-type, and, almost like he was reluctant to move, rolled to the side sluggishly. Phanpy was unable to register the completely unpredictable move and passed right by him, missing completely. Ash's jaw dropped. "He dodged!?" He cried in astonishment. "Phanpy! Come around for a second hit!" Phanpy obeyed immediately, spinning around and bowling towards Slakoth once again.

Norman smirked as he knew he had the Pokémon at his mercy now**. **"Slakoth, use Blizzard!" He ordered.

Ash gasped. "Phanpy, quick, turn away!" he yelled but his decision came too late. Slakoth took a lazy breath and spat a gust of icy and snowy wind directly at the incoming Pokémon, whose momentum from the Rollout made it impossible to stop or change directions in time. He was hit head-on with the powerful blizzard, the draft of icy wind making the Pokémon cringe and cry out in pain as he was pushed several feet across the field.

"Th-this i-is c-c-cold!" Phanpy whined in pain, shivering from the icy sensation.

"Hang in there Phanpy, you can do it!" Pikachu shouted encouragingly.

"_Yes, you're strong Phanpy!"_ Latias agreed cheerfully. _"A little Blizzard is not gonna beat you."_

Ash growled as the battle began to turn bad on his part. "What's up with that weird dodge!?" he complained indignantly.

Norman laughed at the youthful adversary of his. "As a challenger you need to be prepared for anything Ash and that's something a Gym Leader should test. I use a very peculiar fighting style with my Slakoth," he explained. Slakoth made no movement whatsoever; he just remained lazily sprawled on the floor as if his bones were far too brittle to support his body structure.

Max nodded happily. "That's my dad, he'll have that Phanpy beat fast for sure!" He cheered.

Bianca chuckled. "Don't underestimate that little toddler."

"They both seem very into this battle, I wonder who's going to win…" Caroline commented, looking between both battlers with amazement. "This is going to be very good…"

"Duh mom, of course dad's gonna win, he's the best!" Max said without a doubt. Caroline smiled and held back a little laugh.

"If you can dodge because Phanpy's rolling, then how about if Phanpy can clearly see you?" Ash asked his opponent, a smirk on his face.

Norman raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Phanpy, use Take Down!" Ash ordered, pointing at Slakoth dramatically.

"Watch me daddy, I'll win!" Phanpy shouted obediently and then charged at his opponent, running as fast as his feet would allow him.

Norman laughed. "Not going to work. Slakoth, you know what to do."

Slakoth yawned lazily and stayed sprawled on the floor, unmoving with total laziness. Phanpy frowned uncertainly but still continued charging even if fighting such an unmotivated enemy was very odd and totally out of place. Just as Phanpy was about to hit him, Slakoth rolled to the side in a sluggish manner and… started to scratch his belly. Phanpy gasped as he tried to rectify his charge, but it was too sudden a movement.

"Use Slash attack!" Norman shouted. Slakoth suddenly held a clawed arm out, slashing at Phanpy's feet as he passed by with another miss, tripping Ash's Pokémon and making him roll across the floor like a bowling ball. "Ouuww…" the Ground-type moaned.

Ash sighed in dismay that his attack had been countered yet again and in such an absurd method too. "How can being lazy be so difficult to deal with? Shouldn't it be the other way around?"

"Simple," Norman said. "It's something you haven't fought yet and thus you have no experience against. Like I said, a Gym Leader should test to see how challengers adapt to all kinds of battle settings. This time, I've put a very slow setting for you."

"I never thought being lazy could actually be effective in a fight," Pikachu commented while imagining how such a ridiculous way of dealing with a battle can actually be effective. "I like extremely fast and energetic battles."

"So do I," Ash admitted. "But… this is something I haven't dealt with before." He hummed as his mind began working overtime to find a counter, and in the meantime, he ordered Phanpy's next move. "Let's see how you handle long range attacks then. Phanpy, use Hidden Power!"

Phanpy nodded eagerly from his surrogate father's order. "Yes!" His body began to glow as he generated several spheres of white energy around him. "Take this!" He yelled in a dramatic tone, much like his 'father' would, as he fired the spheres at the Lazy Pokémon.

Norman laughed at the rather unimpressive display, at least from his perspective. "Ash, you'll need something better than that to surprise me. Slakoth, use Protect." Upon receiving his command, Slakoth yawned lazily and kept scratching his belly as a shield of green energy appeared all around him. The energy orbs smashed against the shield, instantly creating a spectacular blast of light but ultimately failed to inflict any damage on the user himself.

Ash facepalmed in dismay at how the battle was turning out so far. "This… isn't going well."

Max cheered happily. "Dad's gonna win for sure! Go dad! You're my hero!" Norman smiled as he heard his son's cheers, but he kept focused on the battle, there was no time to pay attention to distractions.

Caroline nodded at her son's cheers of inspiration for his dad. "Norman's always been a tough leader to beat."

"Never underestimate Ash," Bianca advised them wisely. "All who do that end up losing in the end."

Norman smirked slightly as an idea formed in his mind; it was time to turn the tables against Ash. "Slakoth, use Yawn!" He commanded.

Ash blinked in confusion at the sound of such a laughable-sounding and ridiculous technique. "Yawn? You can attack by yawning?" He wondered. On the other side of the battleground, Slakoth yawned lazily as a blue bubble materialized right in front of his mouth. The sphere floated over to Phanpy's face and popped just in front of him.

Phanpy blinked. "What was that supposed to do?" he asked in puzzlement. Slakoth was too lazy to bother answering him, or even acknowledging he said anything. Phanpy yawned tiredly. "Is it… nap time already? I'm sleepy…" He murmured drowsily.

"_That's bad, Ash!"_ Latias warned him. _"Yawn is an attack that makes the target fall asleep after a few minutes!"_

Ash hummed. "This is tough…" he whispered. Phanpy already looked tired after taking that Blizzard attack head on, and now he was falling asleep. Then it clicked in his mind. The perfect plan to beat Norman's Slakoth had come to him. "Phanpy, return!" He held out his Pokéball as a beam of light fired from it, enveloping the little Pokémon and pulling him inside the sphere.

Pikachu smirked, getting ready to hop off Ash's shoulder and enter the fight. "I'm ready Ash!"

Latios blinked. "He has two Pokémon left, why send out Pikachu now?"

"Remember he said he'll definitively use Pidgeot in this fight, and since he already has Phanpy in the fight, that only leaves one slot open," Pikachu explained. "And it's mine!"

"Ah, right!" Latios remembered. "I'm ready Ash!" He too got ready to go into the field. "I could very easily defeat that Slakoth, it can't escape my psychic might… and neither can the rest of Norman's Pokémon." It was evident to him that he could easily win the entire match singlehandedly.

Pikachu growled. "No you're not! That slot is mine! Right Ash?"

Ash chuckled. "Um… I'm not using either of you guys," he said to them, making both of them look at him in surprise. "Sorry."

"Awwww," Pikachu moaned, displeased. "Guess that means I'll be sitting this one out."

"Larvitar, I chose you!"Ash shouted, hurling the Pokéball towards the field, releasing the Rock Skin Pokémon. He looked around, noted he was in a battle, and got serious, ready to fight.

Max moaned as his disappointment only continued to grow."Awww, no Latios yet…"

Bianca hummed. She knew Ash had plans to use Pidgeot as his stellar Pokémon for the fight, and that meant he had used up all three Pokémon. _'This is… weird… Ash could win easily with Latios or Pikachu…maybe even Latias…why isn't he using any of them?' _She wondered curiously.

Latias frowned. _"I don't know… I thought he'd include my brother for a Gym fight…"_

Latios sighed._ "Why, Ash?" _He asked confusedly. _"Without me and Pikachu, or even Latias, you're putting the result of this battle in peril. Phanpy and Larvitar aren't that strong yet, you could lose. This is a precarious gamble you're taking here."_

"Precisely. That's why I'll use Phanpy and Larvitar; I learned my lesson in the Silver Conference Latios," Ash explained to his team members. "I learned not to rely too much on a single strong Pokémon, which cost me the Johto tournament. I won't make that mistake again. This time I'll make sure that I make _everyone_ my strongest Pokémon!"

Latias blinked. _"That's… very thoughtful, certainly unexpected too,"_ she said in surprise.

Ash nodded with a grin that displayed confidence and vigor. "You see, I've learned from my past mistakes. It's a part of growing up, right? Latios, if I use you to beat every gym in Hoenn, that means that not many of my other Pokémon will get experience, so only you will be able to handle the competition ahead of us. If I do that and I lose you in the Hoenn League like I did in the Silver Conference, I'll be defeated again." Determination shined brightly in Ash's red-colored irises. "That won't happen again. Sorry Latios, but you're too powerful. I'll give everyone a chance to shine in battles, and only resort to you when it's absolutely necessary. After all, my team has six Pokémon, and you Latios, are only _one_ of those six. We're just that, a team! Everyone has to do their part."

Latios, Latias and Pikachu stared at Ash silently, all of them deeply surprised at what their trainer had said. It was amazing, a true sign he was really growing up and learning from his past experience. Latios' mouth curved into a smile as he felt a sense of pride for Ash welling up in his heart. _"That's wonderful Ash, you've learned well,"_ he praised, surprised at how right Ash could be sometimes.

Latias nodded. _"That's very sweet Ash, and very smart to do,"_ she agreed.

Pikachu beamed after hearing Ash's decision. "You're an amazing trainer Ash, and I'm sure you'll raise us all into a winning team for the Hoenn League."

Bianca smiled as well. "Good job Ash," she whispered.

Caroline frowned, not quite catching what Ash had said. "What was all that about?" She wondered, confused.

Bianca shrugged. "He was talking with Latias and Latios, he's very communicative with them."

Max sighed in jealously. He was talking with his Legends so freely? "He's so cool… got any idea what he meant from what he said? I'm confused."

"You'll see," Bianca answered. "You'll see…"

Ash smirked. "Ready, Norman? Larvitar is gonna defeat that Slakoth of yours easily!" he declared.

Norman chuckled. "Oh? We'll see about that."

"Larvitar, get lazy!" Ash cried out, ready to begin his counter strategy against Norman.

Norman face-faulted comically. "What? That's my strategy!" He shouted indignantly.

Caroline blinked. "What?" She asked flatly. May and Max tilted their heads in confusion.

Larvitar turned to look at Ash. "Are you serious, daddy?" He asked, just to be sure.

Ash nodded. "Yes, as serious as I can be, Larvitar, that's all part of the plan," he answered.

"Okay," Larvitar said, shrugging. He turned back to face Slakoth, and smiled. He loved being lazy and unproductive. He yawned lazily and sprawled on the floor in a total lack of any form of motivation, much like Norman's Slakoth.

Latios looked at Norman, then at Ash, and then at the two lazy Pokémon. _"Ash, what are you doing?" _He asked, confused.

Ash smirked. "I'm beating Norman at his own game."

Norman growled, it was the first time any challenger had tried what Ash was doing. "Beating me at my own game? How is _that_ going to work?"

Slakoth yawned lazily and sprawled even more on the floor, too lazy to move any muscle in his body. He eyed Larvitar through half-closed eyes. Larvitar yawned and lay on the floor as much as Slakoth was, his face one of a complete lack of energy.

Norman was completely perplexed. _'Ash is an interesting challenger… he's shifting my own battle pace against me… now… what am I supposed to do? Hmm, I'll play along for now, I guess,'_ the Petalburg Gym Leader thought. "Slakoth, don't let up, show Ash who is lazier!"

Ash grinned. "Larvitar, show him what being lazy truly means!" he instructed.

Both Larvitar and Slakoth were too lazy to nod or show any response to their trainers. They looked at each other with absolute lack of interest and motivation as if the Pokémon battle itself had evolved into a staring contest of some sorts.

Max frowned. "Are they going to lie there all the day?" He asked. "What kind of battle is _that_!?"

"I was always amazed at how unpredictable Ash is in battles," Bianca began. "And I'm still amazed." She took out her sketchbook and began to draw the extremely motionless battle. "This is almost a freeze frame," she mused as she rapidly drafted the scene.

Latios looked at Ash questioningly, not that the trainer saw it since he was invisible. _"This is your grand idea of defeating Norman's Slakoth?"_ He asked doubtfully.

Ash nodded happily. "Yep! Awesome, isn't it?"

Pikachu facepalmed, he didn't know if he should congratulate or criticize his trainer for this. "I reserve my right to make a comment," he grumbled.

Latias frowned. _"If that's his plan I fear this battle is gonna drag on for a rather long time," _shesaid, looking between Larvitar and Slakoth.

Norman sighed, this battle was going to be eternal if this kept up. _'If I try to attack, Ash will counter like I did… he put me against my own game… he… is very cunning…' _Norman admitted, thinking on how to jump start the battle without being a victim of a counter-attack from Larvitar.

Ash smirked. "Keep it up Larvitar! Maximum laziness!" The Rock Skin Pokémon yawned as he shifted slightly, his arms and feet stretched on the floor. He lay there, completely unmotivated and unmoving.

Norman sighed. _'Patience Norman, patience…' _He reminded himself. "Slakoth, do what you do best." Slakoth didn't nod, he was too lazy to do so, and just remained on the floor.

Both Pokémon locked eyes. Larvitar sighed lazily. Slakoth growled lowly. How dare anyone try to give him any competition?

Fifteen minutes later…

Ash frowned. "This is gonna take longer than I thought, but we made progress, don't let up Larvitar, be lazier!" Larvitar remained motionless and his face adopted an even more unmotivated and uncaring expression. The world could be crumbling down around him and he wouldn't move an inch.

Norman sighed. "Slakoth… just…" He put his face between his hands. Slakoth looked at Larvitar the same way Larvitar was looking at him, but then growled and began to sweat nervously. The Larvitar was actually being lazier than him!

Thirty seven minutes and forty one seconds later…

Caroline sighed. "This… is boring…"

"Yeah," Bianca nodded in agreement. She looked at her sketchbook and frowned. She had a perfect drawing of the two not-battlers in front of her. She turned to the page before it and pouted. The picture on it was identical to her latest one. She turned the page back and saw the same drawing again. "I've been drawing this a lot," she commented to herself. She sighed exasperatedly; still feeling rather bored, and started drawing the scene in front of her again.

"No! It's not boring!" Max argued energetically. "You can feel the dramatic tension on the battlefield!"

Meanwhile, over by Ash, Pikachu and Latios were engaged in a riveting game of I Spy. Okay, not especially riveting, since there wasn't that much in the gym to spy in the first place, but to them, it was better than watching Larvitar and Slakoth doing nothing for over forty minutes, boredom was terrible, after all.

"I spy…with my little eye…something that is…blue!" Pikachu said, hoping Latios would be unable to answer that one right, he just seemed to be getting them right too fast…

Latios read Pikachu's mind, got the answer, and pretended to fail a few times so the Electric-type wouldn't suspect anything. "Uh… is that me?" Latios guessed wrongly.

"No, not you, you don't count since you're invisible, I can't technically see you," Pikachu pointed out.

"Ah, okay,"said Latios before resuming his guesses. "Er…Is it Ash's coat?" He guessed.

"No, we already did that one several minutes ago, remember?" Pikachu reminded him, chuckling.

"Oh, right,"murmured Latios before once again resuming his search. Eventually, his eyes lit up and a smile came across his face as he spotted something that had to be what Pikachu was looking at, or, he pretended like that was happening. "Aha! I got it!" He declared happily.

"Yeah?" Pikachu asked with a slight grin.

"It's that fangirl's silly shirt of me, isn't it?"Latios asked while pointing over at Max and the blue-and-white Latios printed t-shirt he was wearing.

"You got it!" Pikachu confirmed. "Heh, although, why'd you call him a fan_girl_ when Max is a boy?"

"Well, he certainly _screams _like a girl, doesn't he?"Latios joked.

Pikachu laughed openly. "Hahaha, I guess you have a point there, I didn't think it was physically possible for a boy to scream that high!" Composing himself, Pikachu then said, "Okay, your turn."

Latios hummed mentally as he searched for something good to spy to stump Pikachu with. After a minute, he smiled and said, "Okay. I spy…with my little eye…something that can be admired by both humans and Pokémon alike, and can also appear in many different forms."

"What? Hey, that's cheating, it's too complex!" Pikachu complained.

"Is it? I had no idea," Latios said innocently. "I was under the impression that we can pick anything we want; the way its worded shouldn't make a difference, it just requires one to actually think it out, and then it should be readily apparent."Smiling smugly, Latios continued, "Are you saying that you're not smart enough to work it out? If not, I'm sure I could word it so that even a baby can understand…"

That did it for Pikachu. "Hey, I am _not _a baby! I can work out your stupid riddle, no problem!" he said angrily before fervently beginning to search around. Latias giggled in amusement.

"Heh, good luck, then," Latios said with a smirk. Ash rolled his eyes, but continued watching the dramatic battle between Larvitar and Slakoth.

After three minutes of fruitless searching, it became clear that Pikachu was well and truly stumped.

"You're stumped, aren't you?"Latios asked, smirking.

"As if!" Pikachu lied vehemently, not wanting to give Latios the satisfaction of knowing that he was stumped. "I just need a little bit more time to figure it out, that's all!"

"Give it up, Pikachu, you know and I know that you can't figure it out,"Latios told him, shrugging mockingly.

"And what makes you think that?" Pikachu asked skeptically.

"I'm _Psychic_, remember? I know that you're stumped just from your surface thoughts alone."Latios answered amusedly.

Seeing no reason to deny it any longer under this ironclad proof, Pikachu slumped his shoulders and admitted his defeat. "Alright, fine, you got me. What is something that can be admired by humans and Pokémon alike, and can also appear in many forms?"

"Art,"Latios answered simply.

"Art?" Pikachu asked, dumbfounded.

Latios nodded. "Yes, art. Think about it. It can be admired by both humans and Pokémon alike, and can also appear in many different forms, be it drawings, paintings, sculptures, abstract…those are just a few of the many different art categories there are," he explained.

"Ah, wow, that actually makes sense, now that I think about it. I would've never thought of it!" Pikachu said amazedly. He then frowned. "Although, where is there art around here?" He asked, indicating the Gym arena they were in.

"There are actually a few instances here, as a matter of fact. You just need to know where to look for them. Bianca's drawing over there certainly qualifies as art. The architecture of this Gym's exterior and interior could be regarded as a work of art by some. Even battling can be seen as an art form, especially when we're talking about battling in Pokémon Contests,"Latios pointed out. Latias nodded in agreement.

"Ah, I see, those do seem like art, don't they? That's a very interesting theory, Latios," complimented Pikachu.

"Thanks, I thought so too,"Latios said with a smile.

"Although…I hardly think that _this _battle would qualify as art, don't you?" Pikachu joked, indicating the so-called 'battle' in front of them.

Latios laughed. "Agreed."

Latias giggled openly. Ash facepalmed at his Pokémon's game, but continued his battle. "Get lazier Larvitar! Lazier!" Ash shouted. Larvitar complied, or was too lazy to comply, but in being too lazy to bother complying he was complying anyways. Latios and Pikachu decided to pause their game and look at Ash, hoping he finally did something in this boring battle.

"Lazier, Slakoth! You can beat that Larvitar, it's your own game!" Norman encouraged.

"No he can't, you can win Larvitar!" Ash countered.

Norman scoffed. "Slakoth, your entire _species_ specializes in being lazy! Don't let someone beat you in a game you were born to play!"

Slakoth frowned, sweating profusely out of the tension and nerves. It couldn't be! That Larvitar was still defeating him at being lazy! Larvitar, in turn, looked perfectly calm and lazy.

"Lazier, Larvitar!" Ash pressed on.

"Keep it up with the laziness Slakoth!" Norman shouted, he still had no idea why he was _still_ following Ash's game, but there was no harm in doing so.

Pikachu blinked. "You know, now that I think of it, I'm getting a sense of Déjà-vu from this," he commented awkwardly, wondering where he had seen a scene like this before.

Latios turned to look at him. "You are?"

"Yeah, I get the feeling I've seen something like this before…" He answered, and then laughed. "Oh right!" He said, getting it.

"Well?" Latios asked curiously.

Pikachu stifled a laugh. "It was Ash's first trainer battle from a few years back. He used a Metapod against another guy with a Metapod, and they had a duel of…" He started laughing raucously for a few moments before regaining his breath. "…Harden. Basically it was two Metapod trying to knock each other out with Harden. That's right. And I'm not trying to be funny here."

Latios snorted. "Wonderful," he commented. Latias rolled her eyes in amusement.

"Though, this battle isn't filled with as much sexual innuendos as the last one," Pikachu remarked.

Latios blinked in confusion. "That battle had sexual innuendo? How?" He asked.

Pikachu chuckled. "What is Metapod _almost_ shaped like?" He then smirked. "Now, imagine Ash yelling 'Harder Metapod, harder, maximum hardness…'" Pikachu answered, and then exploded into a state of uncontrollable laughter, unable to hold it back any longer.

"Ah, that's most… interesting…" Latios said in understanding. He started laughing, as did Latias.

Ash frowned, confused. "What's a Sechsual Innu… how was the word? What's Seckshual to start with? And what is in-that?"

"A sexual innuendo is something that's _very_ weird to hear from two innocent and naive ten year olds," Pikachu answered uncomfortably.

Ash frowned, but decided to ask later and instead focused on his own battle. "Harder La- wait no, lazier!" Ash shouted. Pikachu chuckled in amusement.

Norman sighed. "Ash… this is getting old…"

Slakoth was shaking with rage by now. The fact that Larvitar was still being lazier than him only infuriated him even more. He glared at Larvitar. "I… hate you…" Slakoth whispered.

Larvitar was too lazy to answer. He was too lazy to even do anything. He just looked at Slakoth with a lazy and uninterested expression. Ash smiled, seeing the tension between the two. "Almost there Larvitar…"

Slakoth screamed in fury, startling everyone with the unexpected gesture. "I can't take this!" the Sloth-like Pokémon roared in fury. "No one is lazier than me!" His claws glowed darkly as he charged sluggishly at Larvitar with a Shadow Claw attack. "I'll show you!"

"No! Slakoth, wait!" Norman cried out when the Slacker Pokémon attacked without any order or command to do so.

Slakoth didn't listen, he just kept charging towards Larvitar, and the fact that even with this Larvitar was still looking at him with the laziest possible expression was even more infuriating. "I'll defeat you!" Slakoth shouted, almost reaching Larvitar by now.

Ash smirked. "Rock Smash," he said simply.

The next move was almost like lightning. Larvitar bolted up at an amazing speed, his right arm already glowing brightly with the Rock Smash attack, which he slammed directly into the Slacker Pokémon's gut. Slakoth gasped, and coughed. He looked down as he saw Larvitar's arm lodged into his belly. Slakoth weakly looked at Larvitar's smirking face, and then fell to the side, eyes turned to swirls. He had been knocked out.

Larvitar let out a low laugh. "Heh, rookie. When it comes to laziness you're hardly the real deal. I wasn't even being my laziest!"

Kenny raised the flag corresponding to Ash's side of the field. "Slakoth is unable to continue battling. The winner of this round is Ash Ketchum!" he announced in an official tone.

Norman just stared at the scene before him, looking at his knocked out Slakoth lying there defeated beside the Larvitar. In response to Ash's victory, he clapped. "This took a very long time Ash, but I can't say I'm not impressed. This was very surprising, you're the first challenger who ever did something like this to me," Norman praised, holding out a Pokéball as he returned his beat Slakoth inside. "You're a magnificent trainer, but…remember, I still have two Pokémon left. This battle is far from over."

Ash smiled. "Thanks Norman," he said, and then he looked at Larvitar. "You were amazing Larvitar, good job."

Larvitar nodded. "Thanks daddy," he said, smiling at the hearty praise.

Bianca sighed in relief. "Finally, we can move on with the battle! About time," she commented, stretching slightly to get rid of the numbness of being seated for so long watching the two Pokémon laze off.

Caroline smiled. "It might have been boring, but just look how pumped both Ash and Norman are; Ash because he won the first round, and Norman because he's excited about the way he was uniquely defeated. This battle is just starting and I promise Norman will _not_ be easily defeated," she said as she evaluated the attitude of the trainer and Gym Leader.

Max nodded. "Of course dad is not going to be easy to defeat. Ash got lucky this time, his next Pokémon will defeat both Phanpy and Larvitar easily and then he'll use Latios!" he cried excitedly, wishing desperately to see the Eon Pokémon in battle.

May frowned. "I don't understand something. Why did the Blizzard not knock out Phanpy out in one hit, while that punch defeated Slakoth in one hit?" She asked confusedly.

Max shifted his glasses slightly, making them turn all white from light reflecting off of them. "That's ridiculously easy, my poor ignorant sister. Blizzard is an ice attack, and Phanpy is a Ground-type so that's a super effective hit, but keep one thing in mind, that Slakoth isn't very good at Special attacks, so it wasn't a strong Blizzard. However,Larvitar is very strong using physical attacks, and Rock Smash is a physical attack, so the super effective Rock Smash had more effect on Slakoth than the super effective Blizzard on Phanpy because of the way each Pokémon's attack is orientated," the knowledgeable youth answered smugly in reply to his sister's question.

May rolled her eyes. "Show-off know-it-all," she whispered lowly. "But thanks, I think I understood that."

"Really?" Max asked eagerly.

"No," she admitted, causing him to sweatdrop.

Norman took out a second Pokéball. "Are you ready, Ash?" The Gym Leader asked.

"I'm ready, Norman," Ash answered, smirking. "I'll stick with Larvitar for the next fight."

Norman nodded and hurled his second Pokéball towards the battlefield. "Go, Vigoroth!" He shouted as the Pokéball burst open, releasing a Pokémon that looked similar to Slakoth. Vigoroth was larger and pure white with a red tear-shaped tuft of fur on its head. It had two brown stripes on his back, and the arms were rather long in relation to the rest of the body. The paws were two long and sharp looking claws. The Vigoroth roared in anticipation of the battle, hopping from side to side energetically and ready for a fight.

Ash's jaw dropped. "That thing looks powerful!" He said, and then took out his trusty Pokédex for a quick analysis of the Pokémon before him.

"Vigoroth, the Wild Monkey Pokémon. Vigoroth is only comfortable going berserk. It will destroy anything in its path by spinning both arms, and goes more berserk when done," the Pokédex informed in a monotone voice.

Latios nodded. "That's fairly accurate Ash. Be careful, Vigoroth, unlike its pre-evolution Slakoth, are extremely filled with energy and are rather powerful, especially using physical attacks," he added.

Norman smirked. _'Let's see how Ash handles one of the keys of my Gym's battle style, which is suddenly shifting from such a slow-paced battle with Slakoth, to a completely speedy one with Vigoroth!' _he thought to himself, eager to see Ash's reaction. "Vigoroth, use Slash attack against Larvitar!" The Gym Leader ordered. Vigoroth complied immediately, charging at Larvitar extremely fast while roaring incoherently while flailing his arms.

Ash gasped in fright. "He's fast! Larvitar, counter with Rock Smash!" He shouted quickly.

Larvitar nodded as his arm began to glow white, but Vigoroth was already on him. Seeing the incoming Wild Monkey Pokémon, Larvitar thrust his arm forwards, but Vigoroth easily side-stepped it and jumped, landing behind Larvitar in a blink of an eye.

Ash's eyes widened, the evolution of Slakoth was extremely fast. "Larvitar watch out! Behind you!" He warned, but it was too late. Vigoroth slashed at Larvitar from behind with its massive claws with enough force to actually hurl the heavy kid backwards. Larvitar winced and let out a small cry. Even with his durable and rocky skin that actually hurt.

But Norman was not going to give him enough time to recover. "Use Focus Punch, Vigoroth!" He commanded. Vigoroth roared and leaped at Larvitar, his right set of claws glowing as he charged at Larvitar.

"Oh no, Larvitar, watch out!" Ash warned again as he began to feel very worried. "Counter with Bite!" He called out.

Larvitar tried to regain his footing after the rough landing, only to see Vigoroth closing in on him. The Wild Monkey Pokémon went bananas, spinning his body rapidly with both arms spread out like a pair of whips. Larvitar tried to track the more dangerous one, the one charged with the Focus Punch but in doing so, the other arm clawed him in the head, pushing him back and breaking his concentration.

Norman smirked. "Got him!" He cheered. "Finish this, Vigoroth!"

Ash gasped. "Larvitar!" he cried out, clearly worried.

Larvitar narrowed his eyes as he saw the incoming Focus Punch, and then lunged. With a powerful bite, his jaws clamped over Vigoroth's claws. The Normal-Type roared in fury and pain as his arm was bitten and the Focus Punch attack dispelled from his broken focus.

"Use Low Kick!" Norman countered. Vigoroth complied as the Wild Monkey Pokémon quickly swept at Larvitar's legs with the claws at his feet, making the Rock and Ground-type cry out in pain. Using the momentum, Vigoroth slashed at him with his free arm, sending Larvitar flying a few feet from the sheer power behind the attack. Larvitar landed with a thud in the opposite side of the arena, his eyes turned to swirls, his rocky skin cracked in some points. Ash's Pokémon was out of the battle.

Kenny raised Norman's flag. "Larvitar is unable to continue battling! The Winner of this round is the Gym Leader, Norman!" He declared with an authoritative voice.

Ash frowned as he recalled Larvitar back into his Pokéball. "You did great Larvitar, have a nice long rest," Ash whispered to the Pokéball. He tucked it away and faced the Vigoroth. "Oh no, what just happened? That was… so fast."

"_I warned you, Vigoroth is nearly Slakoth's perfect opposite in attitude,"_ Latios reminded him.

"Precisely," Norman answered. "A challenger has to adapt to any situation, and in this case, that was the shift of the style of the fight, from lazy and slow to extremely fast. We're tied with one Pokémon down Ash, anything can still happen."

Bianca looked at Vigoroth. "That Pokémon is powerful…"

Caroline nodded. "Yes, Norman's Vigoroth is strong. It's clear both him and Norman are enjoying this battle greatly, I haven't seen them so excited in a long time."

"Go dad, go!" Max cheered happily. "You can beat anything Ash sends at you, even Latios!" He cried out firmly. Latios rolled his eyes and chuckled, but remained silent. There was no need to reveal his presence for the time being.

Ash hummed in thought, then grabbed Phanpy's Pokéball. "Phanpy's very good at being energetic and speedy so this match is perfect for him… Go Phanpy!" Ash shouted, releasing the Long Nose Pokémon into the field…only to be presented with a scene of the Ground-type snoring away peacefully.

Ash facepalmed when he saw Phanpy. "Oh no, this can't be true," he moaned in dismay. Phanpy was asleep, curled into a tight ball and occasionally mumbling some childish things in his slumber.

Norman laughed. "It's true, Ash. Slakoth's Yawn took its effect on him."

"Phanpy… return," Ash said in dismay, returning the blue infant Pokémon back to his Pokéball as there was no point in keeping him out. "I had forgotten about that Yawn attack…"

Norman smiled. "It happens. That means that until he wakes up, you're down to your last Pokémon," he informed him. "Slakoth did his part."

Ash nodded. "Yep, and this is a Pokémon you'll have to really put an effort to defeat. Go…"

Max squealed ecstatically. "Latios!"

"Pidgeot!" Ash shouted, hurling her Pokéball towards the field. Pidgeot appeared in a bright white flash and the large-sized Bird Pokémon immediately displayed her wings proudly, chirping loudly and ready for a fight.

Max began to cry the moment he realized the Eon dragon wasn't going to show up for this battle. "No Latios!? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WHYYYYYYYYYYY?!" He wept as if he had lost his favorite toy. Caroline pulled him close and began to rub his back tenderly as he sobbed and sniveled and blew his nose in her shirt. May rolled her eyes in embarrassment and surreptitiously scooted away, and Torchic laughed at his misery.

Ash frowned guiltily, but focused on his fight. "Pidgeot, it's all up to you to beat Norman's two Pokémon. Are you ready?"

Pidgeot nodded. "I'm always ready Ash. Don't worry, we're gonna win this one," she assured him.

Norman sighed in relief, he really didn't want to fight Latios. "A Pidgeot? That's a very interesting choice, Ash."

"She's a lot more than just interesting!" Ash shouted at Norman. "You won't be able to beat her, I promise you that!"

"I like that determination, Ash," Norman said. "But determination alone is not going to give you a Balance Badge."

May looked intently between Pidgeot and Vigoroth. "Hey Bianca, how tough is Ash's Pidgeot?" She asked.

Bianca smiled but kept her gaze directly on Pidgeot and her pose that displayed her magnificent wings proudly. It looked thrilling to the eye and the girl was memorizing every detail in order to make an accurate drawing. "She's _very_ tough. Norman won't beat her easily," she answered. Being one of Ash's primary battlers, it was clear that Norman would have a difficult time overcoming this fight.

"Vigoroth, use Scratch attack!" Norman ordered. Vigoroth roared in confirmation and charged towards Pidgeot, claws ready and outstretched.

"Pidgeot, use Air Slash," Ash said simply, confidence shining in him from having such a trusty partner on the battlefield. Pidgeot flapped her wings once, sending a powerful dual blade of wind that collided head on with the Wild Monkey Pokémon, causing him to roar in pain as he was flung backwards from the sheer force behind the attack.

Norman shielded his eyes from the gust of wind that billowed over him from the aftermath of the Air Slash. "Now that's what I call power. Ash, I have to admit, just looking at the way that Pidgeot holds herself and the power behind her attack… I can tell she's been raised very well."

Ash grinned. "Thanks, I get that a lot. I always raise all my Pokémon with great care. Larvitar and Phanpy are the youngest right now so they're not the most experienced, but soon they'll be as powerful as everyone else!"

Vigoroth stood up, growling in rage at the attack he sustained. "Vigoroth, use another Slash attack, but make sure to be ready to dodge any incoming Air Slashes!" Norman ordered. Vigoroth roared and went berserk again, charging towards the rather large avian Pokémon.

"Pidgeot, use Steel Wing to shield yourself, and then counterattack!" Ash countered defiantly, refusing to give Norman a single inch of terrain in the battle.

Pidgeot remained where she was standing as she spread her wings wide again. They began to glow white as they hardened to steel. Vigoroth roared a powerful battle cry and leaped mightily, rising at least twenty feet in the air, almost hitting the roof. Pidgeot looked up as he began to dive towards her, intent on using the fall to power his attack.

Pidgeot raised one of her wings and put it over her head, using it as a huge metallic shield. Vigoroth smashed his claws against the wing with all his might, creating a loud metallic clang upon collision. Pidgeot's wing didn't even move a single inch back and this caused Norman to gasp in shock. "She resisted it completely!?" he cried in astonishment.

"And she's about to do a lot more than just resist it," Ash answered proudly. Pidgeot threw her wing up, hurling the Wild Monkey Pokémon, which was barely half her size, high into the air and as he came down, she flapped her other hardened wing, smacking Vigoroth with the limb and like a tennis ball, batted the Normal-type Pokémon away. Vigoroth smashed into the wall on the side of the Gym, cracking it.

Caroline gasped when Vigoroth crashed violently against the wall. "This is a very intense battle…"

Max's eyes began to tear a little again. "No! Dad will defeat Ash's Pidgeot! You'll see, mom!"

Norman growled at how the advantage was slipping away from him again. "Vigoroth, get up and use Focus Punch!" he ordered sharply. Vigoroth nodded and shakily began to rise. Even if Pidgeot's attack had been devastating, he still had some energy left in him. With a mighty cry he charged towards Pidgeot as his claws emanated a glow of white.

"Pidgeot, use Aerial Ace!" Ash ordered. "Defeat him with one strike!"

"Okay!" Pidgeot chirped. She flapped her wings and darted at Vigoroth. Vigoroth threw the Focus Punch directly at her face, but she was quick to disappear in a burst of wind. Before Vigoroth could react, he was hit from behind by Pidgeot's Aerial Ace attack, making a large gust of wind also impact him. Vigoroth cried out in pain and stumbled forward, swaying badly from the heavy disorientation after being struck in the back.

"Vigoroth! Hang in there!" Norman shouted encouragingly, but it was no use.

"Finish him with Air Slash!" Ash shouted quickly, giving the Vigoroth no time to react. Pidgeot didn't lose a single second and flapped her huge wings mightily, sending out a pair of blades materialized from the wind. The attack hit Vigoroth's back directly, exploding in two mini-blasts of wind which completely knocked out the Wild Monkey Pokémon upon contact.

Kenny raised the flag corresponding to Ash's side of the field. "Vigoroth is unable to continue battling. The winner of this round is Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town!" He declared as Norman returned the fallen Normal-type back into his Pokéball.

May looked at Pidgeot in surprise. She had seen the Flying-type a few times, but she didn't know she was such a powerful battler. "That Pidgeot… is pretty strong," May commented.

Max nodded. "Yeah, I didn't see Ash using a Pidgeot in the Silver Conference though, which is weird. Why didn't he use such a powerful Pokémon there?" He wondered.

Caroline nodded as well. "The power difference between Pidgeot and Vigoroth was easily noticeable, just like the difference between Vigoroth and Larvitar."

Norman clapped. "Impressive Ash, very impressive…" He complimented, smiling.

Ash smirked victoriously. "Thanks, and be careful, Pidgeot isn't done yet!"

"I hoped so, Ash," Norman began, chuckling. "Time for me to use my final Pokémon. Go… Slaking!" Norman shouted, hurling a Pokéball to the center of the arena and releasing the Pokémon inside with a bright flash of white light.

The Slaking roared proudly and pounded his arms against his chest with a lot of power. Slaking was a rather large gorilla-like Pokémon. Most of his fur was brown in coloration, along with the ring patterning encircling his eye. His face, chest, hands and feet were a lighter brown in color. Slaking had a white collar of fur around his neck, extending towards the top of his head in a small tuft.

Ash's eyes widened slightly. He immediately took out his Pokédex once again. "Slaking, the Lazy Pokémon. The world's laziest Pokémon. When it is lounging, it is actually saving energy for striking back," it informed pointedly.

Ash nodded. "Ah, he looks tough, but the Pokédex says otherwise," he commented.

"_Watch out Ash, Slaking has devastating physical power and incredible durability,"_ Latias advised him. _"And they also possess a wide variety of attacks."_

Max looked between Slaking and Pidgeot. "Wow… Latios may not be in, but this looks rather interesting, since that Pidgeot is tough. Dad will win, though," he said. His eyes welled up in tears again. "But no Latios…"

"Get ready to hand me that badge, Norman. Pidgeot, get ready to fight!" Ash shouted encouragingly.

Pidgeot nodded. "I'm always ready, Ash. I'll have him beat in no time!" She promised, chirping loudly and spreading her wings wide with an air of superiority.

Norman gazed at Pidgeot and Ash analytically. _'He handled the shift badly with Larvitar, but Pidgeot seems to have been a strong solution. Ash always tries to be in the attacking role of the battle, he doesn't play defensive. I need to force him into defense so he can't counter as easily, there's no room for mistakes here…'_ Norman deducted from the experiences of the battle and what he'd seen of Ash so far.

"Pidgeot, let's start this off!" Ash began. "Use…"

However, he was unable to finish as Norman quickly interrupted. "Slaking, use Thunder Punch!" He ordered.

Slaking rose to his feet and charged towards Pidgeot at a rather impressive speed for such a big and lazy Pokémon. As his right fist began to generate static, he threw a powerful electric punch towards Pidgeot. "Take this!" Slaking yelled powerfully.

Ash gulped at the incoming attack that could be potentially dangerus to his Pokémon. "Pidgeot, dodge to the side now!" he countered quickly. The Normal/Flying-type quickly threw her body to the right, adding a flap of the corresponding wing to aid her quick dodge. Slaking passed beside her, her dodge had been fast enough to avoid the super-effective hit.

"Slaking, use Rock Tomb!" Norman followed up immediately, knowing that he needed to give Pidgeot and Ash no room for any offensive moves. The static around Slaking's fist disappeared. He put both hands together and pounded the floor _hard_, causing a small tremor to run across the building. From all around Pidgeot, the floor cracked and split apart as a series of sharp jagged rocks emerged from it, all directed on burying her into a catacomb of deadly boulders.

"Pidgeot, use Steel Wing!" Ash countered quickly. Pidgeot nodded as her wings began to glow white as they hardened to steel again. She made a powerful horizontal slash with her Steel Wing, so strong that it split all the rocks heading at her in half, making them crumble and fall to the floor with heavy thuds. "Now, Air Slash!" the Pokémon trainer added.

Norman gasped. Ash was amazing, even with such a rapid succession of attacks, he still managed to shrug them off and make an opening to attack. "Slaking, block it!" He countered. Pidgeot's Steel Wing ended, returning both wings to normal as she flapped them mightily, firing two large blades of pure wind towards Slaking. Slaking growled and placed his big fat hands in front of him, palms wide open. The Wind Blades collided strongly against him, making him wince from the stinging pain in his hands, but the damage was minimal.

"He blocked it!?" Ask asked in surprise, eyes widening slightly.

"_I did tell you that Slaking was very durable,"_ Latias reminded him. _"Didn't I?"_

Ash nodded. "Yeah, you did Latias, and I appreciate it." He turned to Pidgeot. "Pidgeot, get ready, take flight!"

"Okay Ash," Pidgeot chirped as she flapped her wings, rising to the air, though she couldn't go as high as she'd like due to the low ceiling. "Use Peck Attack!" He ordered quickly, before Norman could attack.

Norman growled lowly as every one of his gym's gimmicks and strategies was constantly overcome by the Pallet Town trainer. _'Ash is too good, he's shifting to the offence even when I'm trying to stop him from doing that!' _He thought desperately. "Slaking, catch her!"

Slaking braced himself as Pidgeot dived at him quickly, and with a speedy movement of his arms, caught Pidgeot's beak in a powerful clap. The Lazy Pokémon growled as he was pushed back several feet by the larger avian Pokémon from the sheer power behind her crash. Slaking smirked. "Got you now," he taunted once he had finally stopped her.

"Shake him off Pidgeot!" Ash shouted at her. Pidgeot arched her body and smashed her feet into his chest, digging her sharp talons into the coat of fur and drawing blood, making Slaking wince from stinging pain.

"Slaking, hold her with only one hand and use Thunder Punch!" Norman commanded. One of Slaking's hands closed into a fist, keeping Pidgeot's beak trapped inside it while he reared back the other one, static already beginning to swirl around it as Norman's Pokémon prepared to smash the electric-imbued fist straight into Pidgeot.

"Pidgeot, your wings are free, use Air Slash!" Ash countered. Pidgeot buried her talons deeper in Slaking's chest to get a good stable hold of his body and angled her wings, flapping them with pure power and smashing two blades of wind into his neck and head. Slaking cried out in pain and stumbled backwards from the force of the blows, releasing Pidgeot in the process.

"Got you," Pidgeot taunted back mockingly as she stabilized herself.

Ash cheered. "Yes! Good work Pidgeot!" He praised her.

"Hold your praise Ash, this is not done yet! Slaking, use Return!" Norman shouted, clearly wary now. This Pidgeot was very strong and judging from what he had seen so far, Norman deduced she was capable of defeating his strongest Pokémon. Slaking roared and pounded his arms into his chest, not minding the cuts Pidgeot had inflicted on him.

Ash tilted his head when he heard that. _'Return… Return… that sounds familiar…'_ He thought.

"_Ash, that's the move Nurse Joy suggested for Pidgeot_," Latias reminded him.

Latios nodded. "_Careful Ash, we don't know how powerful it'll be coming from Slaking!"_

Max grinned. "This is gonna be good!"

Bianca nodded. "Definitely better than Slakoth versus Larvitar, that's for sure," she agreed.

"So… this is how intense Pokémon Battles can be…" May said uneasily, looking between the two powerful Pokémon, and then back at her small and timid Torchic.

A faint halo of pink energy began to surround Slaking as the Lazy Pokémon let his feelings grow from all the love he had for his trainer. All the wonderful moments he had shared with him he began to relive in his mind. He also began thinking of how much he cherished Norman. The pink energy surrounding Slaking represented the bond of trainer and Pokémon. The bond of friendship and love itself between Norman and Slaking transformed into pure power, growing stronger until it was very thick and bright with energy. Norman nodded at the scene. "Good work Slaking, now attack!" He shouted.

Ash gulped. "That looks very powerful, be careful Pidgeot! Watch his movements closely and dodge it!" He commanded her.

Pidgeot nodded and braced herself, watching Slaking with her extremely keen vision, not a single detail missing her. Slaking roared, and at an impressive Return-boosted speed, he charged at her. Pidgeot fluently dodged to the side, making Slaking pass just inches beside her. She held her breath in anxiety as the power Slaking was radiating grazed her slightly. Slaking, however, was not done. Instead of trying to stop his charge and turn around; he continued his path until he reached the wall of the Gym, and using the superior power and agility the Return attack brought him, he jumped towards it and flipped, using it as leverage to launch himself at Pidgeot with even greater momentum and speed.

Pidgeot gasped at the unexpected movement. She immediately flapped her wings in an attempt to gain altitude in the tight building, but there was no escape now. Slaking roared and threw a punch directly at her chest, which landed with a massive amount of power. Slaking released the equivalent power of all the love for his trainer into a single massive attack. "Pidgeot!" Ash cried out, deeply concerned, he wasn't sure if his dear Pokémon, despite her pride as a past flock leader, and her vast experience and power, would be able to survive such a powerful blow.

Slaking dragged Pidgeot along with him and smashed her into the wall on the side of the gym, cracking it severely from the sheer power behind his Return attack and Pidgeot's collision. She shrieked loudly and collapsed, eyes closed in pain, pinned against the wall by the fist in her chest. Norman smirked. "It's over Ash," he said as Slaking's aura of love began to die down.

Kenny nodded. "Almost no Pokémon has ever survived such a head-on hit from Slaking's Return Attack. So, I guess, the battle goes to-" he began saying, but then gasped at what he saw.

Pidgeot's eyes opened rapidly, clenching her beak as she tried to resist the pain she had just savagely taken. Ash smirked "My Pidgeot isn't just _any_ Pokémon, she's _my Pidgeot_!" He said in appreciation. "You can do it Pidgeot! Use Steel Wing!"

Norman gasped, frozen in shock. It was perhaps the first time he had witnessed a challenger somehow survive his Slaking's onslaught. "Wh-what!?" he cried out in surprise. "Impossible!"

"For Ash, for my trainer… I won't lose! He put his trust in me to win this, and I _will not_ fail him!" Pidgeot squawked loudly as her wings hardened to steel. She crossed them over her chest, at each side of Slaking's arm. "Get off!" Pidgeot shrieked as she spread her wings wide, slashing them against the Lazy Pokémon's chest with amazing power. Slaking cried out as he was pushed back by the large and powerful wings.

Max's eyes widened. "So awesome!" He shouted giddily. "But Latios would have been more awesome…"

Even Bianca's eyes widened in surprise. Pidgeot indeed was something else. "Wow…" was all the young artist could say.

Latios nodded once to himself, impressed. _"Good job Pidgeot! Win this battle so Ash doesn't look like an idiot for not using me in it!"_

"Hey!" Ash shouted indignantly, pouting.

Pikachu nodded. "Yes, go Pidgeot! Get the win!"

Ash decided to ignore Latios and instead turned to look at Norman. "Told you so Norman, you'll really need more than that to defeat Pidgeot."

Norman chuckled, and then began to clap. "Magnificent Ash, simply magnificent. Not only are you an extremely resourceful and talented trainer, but you're coupled with a very rich and amazing selection of Pokémon. You're truly one of a kind Ash, it's my honor to meet you on the battlefield," he praised the trainer.

Caroline smiled. "You should feel proud Ash, it's not every day Norman praises a trainer so much, and he's always a tough critic."

Ash nodded, grinning. "Thanks! But that praise isn't all just for me, save some for Pidgeot!" he said as Pidgeot rose to her feet once again, wings spread wide with power and pride as she was rejuvenated with renewed energy and morale."It's time to wrap this battle up!" Ash said. Pidgeot nodded as she glared at Slaking. The Lazy Pokémon glared back at her in a standoff of pure power.

However, the battle couldn't continue, as a small tremor shook the building, making everyone stare around awkwardly. "Did you guys feel that?" Norman asked confusedly.

Caroline nodded. "Yes, and that wasn't Slaking or Ash's Pidgeot."

Ash frowned. "Latios?"

"It can only mean one thing," Latios answered simply, getting ready before uttering the name of the organization that was constantly badgering them. "Team Rocket."

Another tremor shook the building, followed by a massive crashing sound as something tore the _entire roof_ and one of the walls apart completely. The attack made a large section of the roof and wall on the other side also collapse.

May and Max screamed as the roof just over them came crashing down towards them. Caroline quickly hugged her children tightly and pulled them close in a vain attempt to protect them. Bianca just stared at the incoming debris, frozen in place with absolute terror.

"Noooo!" Norman screamed desperately at the sight, fear ripping him from the inside for the safety of his beloved family. "Slaking, save them!" Slaking started running towards the bystanders, but it was too late, as he wasn't nearly fast enough to intervene, and the fact he had some exhaustion on him from the battle did not help at all.

Suddenly, the detritus that would have fallen on Bianca and Norman's family froze in midair, sparing them from the painful and possibly lethal experience. A psychic wave tore the debris apart and blasted it away, keeping them all safe. Max looked up, and at last, he saw a visible Latios hovering over them protectively, eyes glowing as he pushed every danger away from them. Latias herself made sure nothing fell on the distracted Kenny, Slaking and Norman, while also protecting Ash, Pikachu and Pidgeot.

Norman sighed in relief. "Thank you, Ash!"

Ash growled, ignoring Norman. "Not them again!"

With his family safe, Norman looked through the gaping hole that had once been the roof. What he saw baffled him greatly; a colossal mechanical Slaking was looming ominously over the destroyed Gym building. "What the hell is that!?" Norman cursed, wondering what could the construct that just demolished a part of the gym could be.

"Prepare for today's Mankey trouble!" A conversant-sounding feminine voice said over some loudspeakers coming from the mechanical Slaking beast.

"And our SlaKing Kong will make it double!" An equally-familiar male voice added over the same loudspeakers…

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, in an unknown location…<p>

There was a rather plain yet elegant room adorned with very little furniture, the only prominently noticeable features being a large expensive desk with a very expensive computer on it. A man was sitting behind that desk. He had long pulled-back red hair and was wearing a long red coat, with the left side of the chest colored black with the Team Magma logo displayed proudly in red. He was idly looking between several papers that were on his desk, shifting between the sheets and then suddenly frowned in very clear impatience. "Where the hell is Tabitha!?" He asked intolerantly, raising his voice to the two other occupants in the room, a man and a woman dressed in the standard Team Magma uniform. "He was due to return over three hours ago!" The man added.

The female tapped an earpiece communicator attached to her visor and took a step forward. "Tabitha's helicopter reported at the airship dock a few minutes ago, he should be here at any moment, Lord Maxie," she said.

Maxie, the dreaded leader of the villainous Team Magma organization, nodded in a pleased attitude. "Very good."

Several minutes later, the sliding door to the office slid open, and three other people entered. "Reporting back, Lord Maxie," Tabitha stopped at the entrance and saluted, as did the two grunts behind him. Tabitha grabbed his visor and took it off, then slid the hood back, as did the two grunts behind him, then resumed walking towards the desk.

"Oh, about time Tabitha," the male officer said while snickering. "We thought you had been injured… or maybe captured."

The woman laughed. "Or worse," she added snidely.

"Shut up Mack, Courtney," Tabitha told them, glaring.

"Oh, but why?" Mack asked mockingly. "We're only saying the truth."

"Enough!" Maxie said loudly, immediately silencing the three Admins of Team Magma. "What's the report of the assignment?"

"Mission successful, Lord Maxie!" Tabitha reported as he stopped in front of the desk. Behind him, the remaining two members of his attack unit stood firmly.

Mack raised an eyebrow. "I don't see the rest of your unit. How is a mission successful if only three of you come back?" He questioned, shaking his head once. "Bad form Tabitha, very bad."

Maxie nodded in agreement. "He's got a good point, Tabitha. Where's the rest of your unit?" He asked, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

Tabitha sighed, but still stood firmly. "They were defeated and captured, Lord Maxie. We couldn't jeopardize the mission's objectives by attempting a rescue so we had to leave them behind," he reported.

Mack nodded. "Yep, stupid admin Tabitha got his unit caught, woohoo," he commented, then gave a quiet and mocking laugh.

Tabitha growled. "Mack, seriously, shut your trap before I smack you over the back of the head."

Maxie narrowed his eyes. "There better be a good reason for losing five team members on a low profile mission, Tabitha."

Tabitha nodded. "Oh, there is a _really _good reason. Two reasons, actually." He placed a folder filled with many papers on Maxie's desk, along with a disk and a stone tablet.

"Perfect," Maxie muttered as he gazed at the ancient stone tablet. "At least you got the mission objectives, even if you lost more than half the attack team."

"This folder contains all the information gathered in the mission to the Oldale Ruins, including data on the Chamber, the ruins and Professor Alden. There's also a complaint about the new armors, in the battles they were the first things to mess up our Pokémon," Tabitha summarized.

Maxie sighed. "I'll have our developers work on them," he replied, and then he grabbed the disk. "What's this?" He asked.

"The details are in the written report," Tabitha began. "All the digital pictures taken of the inscriptions in the chamber walls are there, and also videos of two Pokémon you'll be very interested in, especially since those two Pokémon were the reason more than half the team was lost," Tabitha said.

"Magikarp and Feebas?" Mack muttered, stifling his snickers. Tabitha simply ignored him.

"And these two Pokémon are…" Maxie began, leaving the sentence hanging for Tabitha to finish. _'This better be good,'_ he added to himself mentally.

Tabitha closed his eyes and sighed. "During the mission to the Oldale Ruins we fought a Latias and Latios, both owned by a Pokémon trainer."

Maxie's eyes widened in pure disbelief at hearing the names of two Legendary Pokémon. "Seriously?"

Mack raised an eyebrow. "That's a pathetic excuse! He's blowing hot air, probably as an attempt to get a raise or promotion!"He yelled, pointing accusingly at Tabitha. "You girl named freak!"

Courtney frowned before she pointed at the data disk. "Well Mack, if he has proof its real… it could be a big thing."

Tabitha nodded in confirmation before beginning his elaboration. "Yes sir, a Latios and Latias. The report contains my analysis on them, and during our battle against them the grunts fighting them recorded it all on their visors, and then transmitted it to me. The videos on that disk are the fights Latias and Latios put up against us," the Magma Admin concluded.

Maxie picked up the disk and looked at it. "This is… extremely valuable, more than five grunts are. Well done Tabitha," Maxie congratulated. "A Latias and Latios aren't our objectives, but they're bound to know something about Lord God Groudon. I'll analyze the videos and determine if a strike team to retrieve them would be in order."

"If you send a team to capture them, make it a highly prepared one," Tabitha advised. "They're very dangerous."

Maxie nodded. "I'll keep that in mind."

As the three admins and the leader of Team Magma talked about the mission and the Latias and Latios Tabitha had discovered, none of them knew they were being intently watched. In one of the corners of the room, unseen to the living world, was the same spirit from the Oldale Ruins.

"So, this is 'Team Magma,' eh…" the malicious spirit muttered to itself, its spectral voice unable to be heard by the humans. Curious to learn more about the individuals before it, a small power wave emitted from the spirit. Within seconds it gazed at their souls and their minds, instantly learning everything about each of them, and equally quickly he filtered out everything useless and focused on what mattered to it. "Hmm… their knowledge about the orbs and Legendary Weather trio is slightly adequate…" the evil spirit whispered. _'They're well organized, well armed and very powerful… with all these metal things they have… this 'technology' they now wield… Well, humans have certainly developed new stuff since the last time I wandered out of my hiding place. This could prove a perfect chance to achieve my plans. I'll let them keep the tablet for now, as it'll guide them to where I hid the three orbs…let's see how they develop their plans,' _it thought to itself.

The spirit gazed silently at each living person in the room for a second. "Though, their goal, spreading the landmasses of the world, is pointlessly stupid in my opinion. I created the Red, Blue and Jade orbs to gain complete control of Kyogre, Groudon and Rayquaza for a _very_ different purpose than something as silly as making more land, but humans are very greedy and these ones are no exception. I can easily influence them to take on a more… destructive and_ magnificent_ goal… their goal is not worthy of my ambitions," The spirit said darkly. "A goal that truly does justice to my creations."

The spirit turned to look at Maxie and focused on him. At the moment he was reading the report the human named Tabitha had handed to him while the rest talked amongst themselves. _'Hm, their leader is very interested in the child Latias and Latios. They're honestly very weak and powerless right now, they'll be of little use for finding Groudon, but if his uses for them can bring harm to them, I'm fine with it.' _The spirit gave a low spectral hum.

The spirit gave a quiet sigh, or what resembled a sigh. "I'd better hurry up on my new plan of using the Latios and Latias children for my revenge against their damned mother... while they are young and powerless. If I wait too long and they grow older it'll be _much_ harder, especially taking into account the kinds of dangerously strong powers their mother wields. It they inherit any power from that damned bitch it'll be harder to draw them into my plan," the mysterious spirit said to itself, its voice trembling with anger and hate at the eon twins' 'mother'. It resumed watching the humans quietly while witnessing their every movement and action they performed.

Maxie parted his gaze from Tabitha's well made and structured report and silently looked for a few moments at the disk and tablet that were also placed on his desk. "Good work Tabitha, you're dismissed. Magma admins Courtney and Mack, prepare for your next assignments."

Tabitha nodded and turned around, then smirked as he passed Mack. "I'm one step closer to being named second in command of Team Magma," he taunted, chuckling. "You're lagging behind, Mack. Better start working harder, kid!"

Mack rolled his eyes. "Don't get cocky because of a tablet and a pair of Legendaries. My next mission will get me something much better than that." He turned and walked out of the room with Courtney.

The three Team Magma admins exited the office, as did the remaining two grunts of Tabitha's team, though they walked down a different hallway.

The spirit, having nothing else to do with Maxie, went through the wall of the office and followed along the hallway. It saw the two grunts that had been with that Tabitha human. They talked to each other for a bit, before they split up and walked down different hallways.

The spirit paused for a second and looked between them, and then chuckled. "It's been a while since I got to kill something. Let's have fun." The spirit looked around to check if there anyone nearby the grunt it had chosen as its victim. After making sure the lone grunt was indeed alone, it flew at him and entered his body.

The grunt gasped as his eyes widened and turned dull. Within seconds the possession was complete. But the spirit had no real intention to keep it. Dark power began to surge from within the astral projected soul, and suddenly a whirlwind of dark Aura enveloped the body, burning the helpless human into nothingness in a few short instants.

The spirit gazed solemnly as the dark Aura began to consume the corpse until nothing remained. "It's been a while since I got to kill anything… that was fun. Short, but fun," it said to itself. "What a pitiful shame, humans have become _very_ weak and fragile in this era," the spirit commented sadly, in order to sustain the weak astral projection; it only had a minimal fraction of its power projected, which even minimal was enough to kill a human.

"Pathetic! Back in my time humans were true warriors, terrible fighters capable of combatting and defeating Pokémon with the powers they were born with, with the powers they wielded naturally, not being forced to rely on feeble machines and creations. We were truly the best species, only below the Legendaries because they are gods and we were mortals, but among mortals, we could defeat any Pokémon who dared challenged us… I hope all this metal they use, or as they call them, _machines_, makes up for that, which I doubt, but it's still a slim hope. The world has truly changed since I last gazed upon it," the spirit said, troubled.

Then it cackled in a dark and malicious tone. _'Enough of this child's play. Team Magma is decent enough, but for now I have to check something very important… Alto Mare… the child Latios and Latias being away from that city is worrying… I'd better go and check on it to see what happened to the real Latios…their blasted father,'_ the spirit thought as it flickered slightly and vanished from the area, teleporting instantly to the Water City of Alto Mare.

The spirit gazed quietly at the water city below him, immediately noting something was _very _wrong. "I can't… I can't sense Latios' power!" It screeched in shock, in its place, it sensed… something different, even if it couldn't quite get it.

The Spirit flickered as it vanished once again, reappearing right in the middle of the secret Garden in an instant, the very place where the father Latios had died in the past, where he had been sealed into the Soul Dew. It flew towards the pedestal where the Soul Dew had always been at, and what it saw nearly made the spirit faint (if it could). There was no Soul Dew. The Pedestal was completely empty. "What the hell!?" The Spirit cursed loudly. "Impossible! My curse against Latios was foolproof! But if Latios' Soul Dew is gone… why is Alto Mare still filled with life and water?" He questioned angrily, that curse had been made so that the city was destroyed if the Soul Dew was destroyed and successfully killed Latios' soul along with it. The Spirit paused when a new power caught its attention, the same one it had sensed earlier.

The Spirit flew towards a pond and analyzed it intently for a few seconds. It lightly tapped the water, but the second it touched the water, it screamed in pain and pulled back quickly as a painful jolt of a stronger power channeled into him. "Damn! Unmistakable… it's Kyogre's power. Smart… somehow they used Kyogre's power over water to keep this area intact even with Latios gone…" He scowled. "But that doesn't answer the most important question… _where_'s Latios? The Real and important one…"

Suddenly, as if on cue, a small flicker of power reached the spirit's senses. A power it knew all too well since it hated its owner deeply. "Oh no!" It cried in fright. It quickly left the garden, flying skywards, and as it did so, it let go of as much of the bits of power it had, leaving just enough to keep the Astral Projection active for a few minutes. Legendaries were powerful, and when dealing with senses as powerful as the father Latios', the less power the better as it meant sensing itself would be harder.

The Spirit gazed quietly in direction where it felt Latios' power coming from. And there, on the horizon, flying towards Alto Mare, the Evil Spirit saw _him._ It was unmistakable; it was Latios, the father one. And worst of all, he was _alive_, back to the flesh and completely free of the Soul Dew. The one fact that bothered the specter even more than the fact the older father Latios was alive was that he was _not_ alone**.**

The spirit gasped. Something even_ worse_ than Latios was beside him. It was his mate. The mother of his children, the twin Latias and Latios that had in the past resided at Alto Mare, it was _her_…

"No…" The Spirit said, absolutely horrified at the sight of that Legendary. "He's alive… and… he's with… _her_," It growled, unable to say anymore. Then a more urgent thought got to him. "Crap! I need to get away from here. Latios' damned mate is such a powerful goddess, even as an Astral Projection with the lowest possible power, she might _still_ sense me… if that happens I'm doomed… I confirmed my fears, there's no point staying here any longer…"

The Spirit vanished, leaving no trace it had ever been there, sadly both legendaries had been distracted with each other and unable to sense the slim trace of power before it was gone. With the discovery that the father Latios was alive and reunited with his mate, the spirit had much to plan and think out, if its wicked plots and evil schemes were to come to fruition…

…

Meanwhile…

In the middle of a clearing in a forest near a city, the roar of a large engine could be heard, echoing harshly through the forest and scaring any wild Pokémon away. The source of the noise was a large jet plane, hovering vertically with its engines pointed downwards as it landed. The jet plane was very robust, with two long wings and two engines for vertical takeoff and landing on each wing. The plane was a deep black color with a large red 'R' painted on each side.

When the jet had settled down, a door on the side opened, and two figures stepped out of the jet plane and started to walk away. When they were a sufficient distance away the plane began to take off again. When it reached a sufficient altitude, the engines tilted backwards and the jet rocketed away.

"So, we're finally here in Hoenn, eh Marauder?" the first one asked.

"Indeed, Tyson…" The Marauder replied to his companion.

Tyson nodded and looked around. "So this is the Hoenn Region. This is where that brat Ash Ketchum is. I've got a thing or two reserved for him..." He cracked his fists in anger.

The Marauder nodded back at him. "That makes two of us. Well, let's get going. Hunting Ash can wait, we've got to get enrolled in Team Aqua and Team Magma as soon as possible to keep Giovanni happy."

Tyson frowned. "True…"

"Oh don't worry Tyson, we'll get him one day. We've both got a score to settle with him, he's fresh on my mind too," The Iron-Mask Marauder assured him. "For now, let's focus on the mission to keep Giovanni pleased. When we capture Rayquaza, Groudon or Kyogre with the _Prison Ball_, we'll certainly get payback against him," he said darkly, then he began to chuckle. Tyson nodded in agreement and both set out for the nearest city to get started on their assignments.

* * *

><p><strong>Author Notes:<strong> And another chapter of A New Chance for Adventure has passed! What did you think? It seems the villains are on the move_! Team Rocket's_ Tyson and Marauder_, the evil spirit_, _Team Magma_… This isn't good… The dark side is rising! Oh no!

Just who is this _**Evil Spirit**_ and what are its intentions? Oh no… I won't say! xD What do you think of its visit to Team Magma HQ and Alto Mare? and it's shocking discovery at the Water City?

And not everything is dark either! For a ray of light shines back into the living, for the father Latios is now alive and out of the Soul Dew! =D How? Why? You'll find out later!


	7. Return Of A Legend

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.**

"Speech"

_'Thoughts'_

_"Telepathy" _

**Author Notes:** Chapter 7 here, enjoy!

**Chapter 7 - Return Of A Legend**

* * *

><p>"Oh wow…" Max uttered with total fascination, eyes widening in awe behind his glasses as he looked up at the blue dragon hovering over him, the one Pokémon he had become absolutely obsessed with ever since he'd first seen him personally during his trip to the Silver Conference with his dad a few months ago, from the far distance of the stadium's crowds. Now he finally had the chance to see his idol up close and right in front of him. "Latios is so awesome…" the boy voiced quietly again, a barely audible whisper due to the sheer sense of amazement coursing through the boy, who was completely frozen on the spot in pure awe, despite the peril that was going on around him.<p>

"Caroline, get the children back here!" Norman called out immediately, seeing that the robot's attack had been stopped dead in its mechanical tracks, giving him the perfect chance to get his kids to safety. Caroline nodded once and quickly grabbed May and Max's wrists before pulling them behind Norman and Slaking, where she knew would be safer. Bianca also got to safety, slowly backing away until she was next to Ash.

"Not you three crooks again!" Ash bellowed angrily, irritation clearly visible on his face and body language. "Can't you leave us alone for once? You just interrupted my Gym Battle!" he complained, clearly ticked off. Pikachu jumped off his shoulder and stood in front of him at the same time as Pidgeot flew in and landed before Ash and Bianca, both Pokémon sporting protective looks on their faces. Latias and Latios reunited with their trainer and the other two Pokémon. Within seconds Ash and Bianca were behind the safety of all four Pokémon.

"Don't you dare interrupt our motto!" Jessie screamed indignantly over the loudspeaker, making her voice thunder ominously as their robot towered over the group. She was angry as well that their precious and very important motto had been interrupted. "No one interrupts it! Not even you, twerp!" she screamed in a complete state of rage.

"Yes! Now where were we?" James asked, forgetting which part of the motto they were on before they were interrupted.

Jessie snorted. "Let's just start over from the beginning," she suggested.

"Okay!" James agreed instantly. He lovedto recite their motto.

"Prepare for trouble!" Jessie began, making her voice as loud and intimidating as possible; this was assisted greatly by the huge loudspeakers installed on the Slaking robot.

"And-" James began, attempting to make his voice big and scary like Jessie's, but he was interrupted before he could continue.

Ash growled with a mix of anger and irritation. "I don't care about your stupid motto!" he shot back. "I'll interrupt it as many times as I want to! Shut up and just go away already!"

"Huh? You don't care!?" James roared angrily at the youth's rather harsh reply. "We'll just _make _you care about it, then!" The trio quickly grabbed the robot's controls and began their assault. The titanic robot reared its right arm back, the hand tightening into a fist. At the same time, many tiny hatches opened across the fist's hull, spewing flames that covered the fist in a large coat of fire in seconds.

"Take this, twerp! Fire Punch!" Jessie's voice roared over the loudspeakers. The SlaKing Kong threw the fire-imbued fist of steel towards Ash, the robot's metallic body creaking loudly as the massive blow loomed over them.

"Watch out!" Norman cried out worriedly, but the size and sheer power behind the robot's attack greatly discouraged him in terms of ordering Slaking to try and defend them. Plus, Norman reasoned, Ash did have two legendaries; surely they could defend their trainer themselves.

The eon twins were the first to react. Before the SlaKing Kong's fire-coated fist was even halfway in its progress towards Ash, the debris of the gym's external rock wall seemed to come to life as it flew between them and the robot. The rubble formed a huge rock wall, held together and reinforced by the dragon twin's powerful psychic abilities.

The force behind the robot's fire punch was massive as the iron fist smashed into the wall with a huge explosion. The rock wall, instead of falling apart like the three villains expected, sprang forward under the control of an invisible force and covered the arm in a layer of debris, putting out the fire. Using the rocky 'glove' that the eon dragons had crafted over the robot's arm, the twins froze the limb in place.

"Dammit!" James cursed, his voice carrying over through the speakers.

Latias frowned as she noticed something very important when she tried to use her mental powers on the robot itself. "Huh…I can't touch the robot. Nor feel the three bad guys inside it. It must be psychic proof…" she muttered sadly. The fact that their psychic powers were useless against the steel-laden adversary meant that the fight was going to be perhaps a little harder than they had originally expected.

"Typical," Latios commented with a shrug. "It was almost expected they'd start making their toys psychic-proof. But remember what we used against Team Magma's Pokémon, Latias. We can't hurt things or Pokémon that are immune to Psychic, but…we can affect everything around them that isn't immune."

"Dey stopped da punch!" Meowth cried incredulously. He grabbed a lever and pushed it to the maximum setting, putting as much mechanical power into the robot's arm as possible. Both twins growled as the robot started to push against them, but their eyes gleamed solidly as they took hold of the robot's right arm with the use of the rocks coating it, making any further movement impossible.

"Awesome!" Max exclaimed happily, voice filled with admiration. "Did you see how much stuff they lifted with their telekinesis and how fast!? Wow! They're stopping the robot!" he ranted, his mind completely focused on the two Legendaries before them.

Norman wasn't too interested in the same things as Max was for obvious reasons. "Ash, do you know these people?" he questioned while glancing at the young Pokémon trainer, his voice sharp and barely hiding a tone of anger.

Ash nodded once. "Yeah, they're a trio of thieves who steal trainer's Pokémon, though they've been following me for over two years while trying to steal my Pokémon," he answered, turning to look back at the Gym Leader briefly. "And they always fail."

May frowned. "So they're the same guys with the silly robot from last time?" she asked, already dreading the answer.

Bianca nodded with a sad expression. "Yeah, they are," she responded.

Norman glared at the robot, his fists clenching at his sides as an immense level of fury built inside the Gym Leader's mind. "You… you _dare_… HOW DARE YOU!" he roared suddenly, causing Team Rocket to involuntarily cringe backwards in their seats at the immense anger in the man's voice. "You three have the nerve, the absolute _gall_, to come in here, to interrupt an official Pokémon League gym match, to lay waste to my gym itself, and in doing so, almost succeeded in bringing harm to myself, to Ash, our Pokémon, and to my _very family_?! You are truly the lowest, most despicable form of scum imaginable, and I will _not _allow your transgressions to me and my family to go unpunished! As Leader of the Petalburg City Gym, as a representative of the Hoenn League, and as a husband and father… I am going to beat the living _hell _out of you!" he threatened the Rocket operatives with a dark and menacing voice. To his side, Slaking banged his well-built fists against his chest and bellowed intimidating to show his raw power, backing up his trainer's threat. Norman was very thankful for a moment that his gym was on the far woody outskirts of Petalburg City; this meant that the potentially catastrophic battle he knew was going to occur would not harm anyone or damage the city itself.

Jessie gulped. She had to admit the tone the Gym Leader used was scary, but it was easy to brush it off from the safety of a cockpit inside a massive robot so she laughed contemptuously instead. "What are you going to do to us? We have a huge robot. You have a measly tired Slaking. We're on the winning side here."

Ash smirked at Jessie's comment and chuckled lowly. "Winning side? I think you forgot some very important details before you can claim that," he stated firmly, not a single doubt in his voice.

Meowth sighed exasperatedly. "And just what would dat be?" He asked impatiently.

"Latios, Latias, Pidgeot and Pikachu," Ash answered, voice confident. "_We_ have the winning side! Ready, guys?"

"Yes!" All four of his trusted Pokémon cried out at the same time.

"Five if you count Slaking!" Norman added. Slaking leaped into the fray and joined Ash's Pokémon, ready to fight against the robot.

"Six!" Torchic cried happily, jumping out of May's arms and dashing forward to join up with the other five Pokémon.

"No!" May shouted as her arms darted forward, catching the Fire-type before he hopped too far into the field. "No fighting for you," the beginner Pokémon trainer chided the tiny fire-type.

"Aw," Torchic murmured sadly.

Caroline held her children's wrists and backed up slightly, putting more distance between the fight and her children. "Go beat them, honey," she said, smiling. Norman nodded back with a confident smile.

May frowned. "Isn't Ash going to do most of the fighting? He has four Pokémon in the battle and two of them are apparently super awesome, according to Max," she commented, looking at Ash. Norman sweatdropped at his daughter's lack of support for him with her comment, and he sadly admitted that it was rather true.

James smirked from inside the robot's cockpit. "We'll show you how your Pokémon will fall against our new robot!" He claimed boldly. "This time we'll win!"

Ash snorted. "You lose every time you fight me," he shot back with a laugh.

Pikachu smirked at Ash's comment. "I forget, what's the count now as to how many times we've blasted their butts off? Like two hundred and eighty-six something times?" he asked wryly.

Ash chuckled. "Your guess is as good as mine, buddy," he said in response.

"We'll see about that!" James shouted in retaliation. "You stopped a Fire Punch, but can you stop a _Thunder_ Punch?" The SlaKing Kong machine reared its left arm back as several powerful electric conduits lining the arm began to spark violently with electrical power.

"I don't think we'll have enough rocks to stop both fists, Ash!" Latios informed his trainer with a sense of worry, not glancing back at him to keep his focus on the psychic-proof robot.

"We won't need them at all," Ash answered the dragon, his mind already forming a plan. "Pidgeot, use Giga Impact on one of the robot's legs! Latias and Latios, keep the fire arm exactly where it is! When Pidgeot attacks, use it to pull the robot!" He commanded boldly.

"On it, Ash!" Pidgeot chirped proudly, nodding as she flapped her wings with mighty force, taking flight and charging straight at the mechanical Slaking. A huge sphere of golden energy appeared in front of her, and moments later, the orb exploded into a series of long golden streaks that ran all around her. A bright purple flash followed as the attack was covered in a big veil of lavender energy.

"Do we aim at the Pidgey or the twerp?" Jessie asked, looking at Pidgeot and then at Ash, biting her lip in confusion as to which target to prioritize in her attack.

"I suggest da twerp, one measly attack isn't gonna put no dent in our robot," Meowth answered before pressing one of the buttons with his right paw. The robot's electrified fist swung towards Ash directly. Pidgeot sped up her flight and rammed into the robot's right leg with all her might. Her Giga Impact smashed into the armored limb, generating a huge metallic clang that rang throughout the destroyed gym. The crash was so strong the robot shook violently and lost its footing. The eon twins quickly used the debris coating the right arm to pull the robot downwards, making it fall to its side, causing its Thunder Punch attack to miss completely and harmlessly dissipate.

Norman hummed, analyzing the robot keenly for any logical weakness they could exploit. He noted the 'eyes' of the robotic Slaking had a distinct sheen when hit by the sun's rays. "That's… glass… Ash! The robot's eyes! They could be a weak spot!" he called out before turning to his Pokémon and ordering, "Slaking, use Return on the right eye!"

Ash nodded in agreement, seeing as he didn't have any ideas other than making the robot fall over. "Pikachu, use Iron Tail on the left eye!" He shouted, pointing dramatically at the left optic of the machine.

Both Slaking and Pikachu charged towards the robot's head, now accessible at ground level with the robot toppled over on its side. Slaking's body was covered in a pink veil of energy powered by all his love for his trainer, Norman. At the same time, Pikachu's tail began to shine a bright white as it hardened to Steel.

"They're coming right towards us!" James cried out, terrified.

Jessie growled with frustration. "The cabin's windshield is made of super-resistant glass, so two meek attacks won't crack it!" she announced proudly, and then frowned as the Pokémon got even closer. "Even if that's the case, I'm not eager to test it, so let's get up! Just in case…"

Meowth agreed instantly. "Yes to dat!" All three Team Rocket agents quickly retook control of the robot and began to maneuver it to a standing position, but it was too late. Before the robot could properly lift itself back up in time, Slaking and Pikachu's attacks smashed into the eyes.

The glass cracked and broke into dozens of pieces, both eyes completely destroyed from the power of the two attacks. Pikachu smirked and entered the cabin through the broken windshield. "Hello," he greeted, cheeks sparkling.

Meowth mewled in horror. "Hello Pikachu, how have you been?" He asked with an unsettled tone, shaking nervously and already dreading the electrical shock that was to come.

"Oh, I've been good. But right now, I'm in the mood for shocking someone," Pikachu answered coolly, his cheeks sparkling with deadly electrical energy. "So I think I'll shock you three." Pikachu readied himself to release a massive Thunder attack on the three villains, but before he could unleash his mighty electric charge, a bright white flash interrupted him. Barely a second had passed before he suddenly found himself under the assault of a barrage of venomous purple needles, courtesy of Jessie's Arbok.

"Take that!" Arbok hissed menacingly towards the Electric-type he despised so much_. _The two Team Rocket agents quickly regained control of the downed robot, pulling up the robotic Slaking and making it stand up. Pikachu wobbled on the window's edge as the robot's sudden movements made him lose his balance.

Jessie immediately took the opportunity. "Arbok, quick, push him off!" She shouted. Arbok lashed his tail at Pikachu immediately, hitting him in the chest and shoving him off the robot's eye.

"Aaaah!" Pikachu screamed as he fell off the robot's eye. With the robot on its feet, it was quite a big fall.

Latios flew around, catching Pikachu on his back. "Are you okay?" the eon dragon asked, his attention still centered on the Team Rocket robot.

"Yeah, that failed badly," Pikachu lamented, frowning. "I should have just shocked them instead of wasting my time talking to Meowth."

Latios rolled his eyes. "I'll drop you by the robot's eye again. Get that Thunder ready!"

Pikachu nodded with an expression of confidence. "Will do!"

"Here they come!" Jessie gasped.

"Meowth, do something!" James cried with a terrified voice.

"Take dis!" Meowth yelled, mashing a button. The Slaking Robot began to buzz as a powerful dark generator inside it flared, creating a huge force field of concentrated dark energies all around it.

"Aaaahh!" Latias and Latios screamed as the field enveloped them rapidly. The force field's super-powered dark energies tore at their senses and minds, bombarding them with pain.

The Rocket trio seized the moment Latios was paralyzed in mid-air due to the pain as the perfect opportunity to counterattack. "We've got you now, take this!" the three villains yelled at the same time as the robot's left arm began to rear back. Many hatches along the arm opened, releasing a potent freezing energy, immediately coating the robot's fist with a thick layer of ice. "Ice Punch, Go!" the trio of operatives laughed simultaneously. The robot threw the ice-coated fist at the still screaming immobilized Latios at full power. The icy punch struck Latios harshly, sending him crashing into the rocky remains of the gym, throwing up a huge dust cloud from the sheer force of the impact and sending a small quake over the rubble.

"No!" Max sobbed at the sight of his idol being injured.

"Latios!" Ash cried out, deeply worried. He gritted his teeth angrily and turned to the robot. "Pidgeot, use Giga Impact, aim for the face!" He ordered.

"Slaking, use Focus Punch, aim for the leg that Pidgeot didn't hit!" Norman shouted his own order.

Pidgeot immediately sped towards the robot, a powerful blazing aura of gold and lavender colored-energy surrounding her as her Giga Impact attack activated. Slaking focused for a second, concentrated his power onto his right fist, and then charged toward the robot as the fist started glowing with a deep and bright white color.

Jessie clenched her fists in anger. "Oh no you don't!" she interrupted, immediately taking control of the robot and readying another Ice Punch, this time aiming at the incoming Pidgeot.

"Pidgeot, spiral around it!" Ash cried out. Pidgeot flapped her wings inside the Giga Impact and pushed to the side, doing an abrupt spinning turn that made the SlaKing Kong's Ice Punch miss completely. The Normal/Flying-type shrieked loudly and rammed into the robot's face at full power, heavily denting the machine's face and making it actually stumble back a pair of steps from the sheer force of the Bird Pokémon's attack.

A second clang echoed as Norman's Slaking crashed a colossal Focus Punch in the robot's left knee joint. This caused the robot to stumble back and fall over again. It landed on its back with a heavy crash, generating a small tremor across the badly damaged gym.

Latias stopped screaming as the robot's dark field finally disappeared. "Uuuhhh," She groaned, eyes closed tightly as she held her head from the splitting headache she had. Even her levitation seemed to drop a couple feet.

"Are you okay, Latias?" Ash asked worriedly, putting his arms around her neck to help stabilize her.

"I'm not sure; that was very painful," Latias wheezed, her voice heavy with exhaustion and still hinting pain. "I think I'll need a bit of time to recover. How's Latios?" She asked, concerned about the heavy attack her brother had taken, which she barely noticed due to her own pain.

Ash looked towards where Latios had crashed after being subjected to the dark energies. To his relief, the blue dragon was slowly hovering back up with Pikachu at his side. "He's okay…I think," Ash answered with a small tone of worry.

Latias looked up. The robot began to shakily regain its footing but the damage dealt to it was extensive. Both legs were badly damaged, with cracks adorning the heavily dented metal. _"Any new plans for taking down that thing?"_ Latias asked, already feeling rather tired and annoyed with the battle. Even her telepathy was a bit difficult right now. _"We can keep attacking that thing's hide, but it won't really do much."_

Bianca hummed in thought, her thoughts drifting towards the three attacks the robot had used so far, which were a fire punch, an ice punch, and finally a thunder punch. "I have an idea," she declared, eyes lighting up as she smiled.

Ash turned to look at her. "Oh?"

"It used a fire punch, right? Well, it had to have some kind of fuel to make and sustain the fire, maybe flammable gas or gasoline, I don't know. Well, find where the robot keeps the fuel for the fire punches stored, and ignite it. It should blow it up," Bianca suggested.

Ash looked over at the heavily ruined Slaking robot. "It used the fire punch with the right hand. So… where would its fuel tank be?" he questioned. "Maybe it's along the arm or inside the body?"

Norman frowned slightly. "More importantly, how would you get to it? That metal hide still looks rather tough and Pidgeot and Slaking's attacks haven't exactly done much to it other than just bump it or crack it. It'll take a while before they actually break it completely."

Latios, who had finally recovered from his migraine and was listening in on their idea, smirked at the prospect of trying out their hypothesis. _"I've got an idea on how to pull off Bianca's idea,"_ he said to them telepathically so Bianca could understand him, and then he quickly turned to Pikachu. "When I tell you to, use a Thunderbolt, okay?" he informed the Electric-type.

Pikachu nodded keenly. "Uh, sure. You can count on me."

"Latias, follow my attack!" Latios called out as his eyes glowed. Latias followed his mental attack with a Psychic attack of her own. The twins grabbed the ice still covering one of the robot's fists, separating the chunk of ice and then seizing it under their control.

"Hey!" Jessie screamed, indignantly. "That's our ice!"

James snarled as the situation began to deteriorate on their part. "Dammit, both legs are beaten up badly! This thing is having some serious problems standing up!" he said, clearly irritated. Latias and Latios immediately broke the ice they had gathered from the robot into many, many small chunks, and quickly polished them all with their psychic powers into sharp spears of ice.

Bianca smirked. "I get it… they'll trick them into using the Fire Punch…" She whispered, keeping her voice quiet so as to not alert the villains of Latios' plan.

Ash nodded. "Brilliant! Why didn't I think of it?"

Pikachu smirked. "You're actually asking that question?" he joked. Ash glared at him.

Jessie's expression paled at the sight of the icicle spears. "Incoming ice attack!" she screamed as the twins launched the barrage of ice spears at their Slaking machine.

"Let's Fire Punch them into oblivion!" James spoke quickly, his hands working on the controls as he activated the robot's Fire Punch capability, sealing their defeat.

"Now, Pikachu!" Latios shouted, eyes glowing as the robot's right arm reared back. Pikachu's cheeks sparkled with electrical power as he released a potent Thunderbolt directed straight towards the robot. Latios rapidly 'grabbed' the electric attack with his mind, splitting the thunderbolt into a dozen smaller bolts.

Hundreds of hatches across the robot's right fist opened up, and Latios quickly redirected the electric attack into the hatches, causing the fuel still inside the arm to ignite prematurely.

Meowth laughed at the Dragon/Psychic-type's attempt. "Dose pathetic bolts aren't go-" He was interrupted by an alarm blaring in their cabin. "What's dat?" he asked, blinking confusedly.

James sighed as he looked at the screens. "It's the alarm that basically says we're about to blast off again," he admitted sadly, bracing himself for the imminent explosion. The fire inside the fuel lines quickly reached the fuel tank, causing it to ignite too.

The mechanical Slaking immediately detonated in a massive explosion, destroying the entire thing completely and launching metallic debris and remains in all directions. The violent reaction would have harmed everyone nearby, but thankfully that was stopped by a powerful psychic shield pulled up by the legendary dragon twins. "Team Rocket's blasting off again!" the trio cried out as they flew in the distance, quickly becoming nothing more than a twinkle on the horizon.

Latios smiled, very pleased. "Got them," he said.

Max clapped happily after the show ended. "That was so awesome! Latios, you are the best! And Latias too!" He yelled with amazement while jumping up and down. "So awesome and cool and amazing and great and splendid and terrific and cool and awesome!"

May blinked. "Uh, you repeated cool and awesome," she said to him.

"I know! They deserve a double cool and awesome, don't they?" Max said, grinning. May giggled, enjoying the clear happiness of her beloved little brother.

Norman sighed sadly. "They escaped? That's too bad. I wanted to capture them and get back at them for this mess. Now I'll have to call the Pokémon League, the police, and the insurance company, just so I can get my gym fixed," he lamented, already dreading the work to come to repair his destroyed gym. "The Pokémon League's gonna kill me for this."

Ash winced. "Sorry about that," he apologized.

"It's perfectly fine Ash, considering you've had to deal with them for a lot longer," Norman articulated calmly, smiling as he looked at the trainer. "Well, Ash… you have my sincerest thanks for saving my family from those crooks. You're an admirable and powerful trainer, and you've proved that to me enough times. First in the battle where you showed your amazing Pokémon raising skills with your Pidgeot, your creative and smart battling strategies with your Larvitar, and overall, you showed an astounding ability to react to the way the opponent changes battle tactics and directly counter them," the Gym Leader said proudly, stopping for a bit to let all his words sink in. "After that, you showed you have amazing raw power in defeating that gigantic robot. You showed you are great at controlling several Pokémon and trusting them. Overall Ash, you are the most amazing trainer that's ever challenged me, and for that…" he paused as he dug one hand into his pocket, taking something out and offering it to Ash on his outstretched palm. "I give you the Balance Badge. You're proved yourself worthy of receiving it."

Ash blinked in surprise. He was clearly not expecting to be awarded the badge already. "But… we haven't finished our battle," he protested, confused as to why he'd be offered the badge so early.

"I know," Norman replied, smiling. "I've already stated my reasons. Badges are not necessarily won by defeating the Gym Leader; they can be given out in special situations as long as the trainer proved himself or herself in the eyes of the Gym Leader, and today is no exception. You've certainly proved yourself over the course of our battle before it was interrupted, and then by defeating that robot and saving my family. You've earned the Balance Badge, so take it as a token of my gratitude."

Ash slowly reached for the badge and took it, looking at it closely. The Balance Badge was two circles united by a line in the middle. When held sideways it signified balance. "Well…" Ash began, frowning. Accepting the badge would be easy, but it didn't feel right. Since Ash felt that he hadn't quite earned it yet, he felt that it was an empty victory. He then smiled and returned it to Norman's palm. "Sorry, but I won't accept it," he announced, much to everyone's surprise.

Norman blinked in surprise. "You… don't accept it?" He asked incredulously. That was the first time any trainer had said that to him.

Ash shook his head. "No. I'm _way_ past accepting badges out of kindness or favors. Slaking is still standing, and so is Pidgeot. If I'm getting that Badge there's only one way, and that's defeating you in a battle."

Pikachu gasped in surprise at his trainer's display of honor. "Wow, Ash… just… wow. Now you have really surprised me," he said, smiling in pride for his trainer. "If Brock or Misty could see this, they'd definitively be proud of you, just like I am."

Ash grinned back at his eternally faithful companion. "I won enough badges in Kanto out of favors or pity, but I've grown past that. Today, I walk out with a Balance Badge after I defeat Norman and Slaking! Pidgeot, are you ready?"

Pidgeot nodded eagerly. "For you, Ash, always," she said, her mind filled with pride and joy at the fact that she was now traveling with Ash and once again fighting for him; even more so after how much the young boy had grown.

Ash grinned and turned to Norman. "If you are ready, we'll continue."

Norman stood there as he faced Ash with a look of surprise. A few moments later, a small smile crept to his lips. "You really are something else, Ash. My gym is completely demolished though, so I guess this means we'll just finish battling in the debris…" He turned around and strode to the other side, heading a suitable distance away to continue the battle.

Caroline grabbed May and Max's hands and led them to the sidelines while Bianca followed them. Kenny, the gym's referee, stood in the middle and fixed his eyes upon both sides until both contestants were ready. "The battle between challenger Ash Ketchum and Gym Leader Norman will continue as planned. Challengers, begin the battle!" he announced with a clear and authoritative voice.

Ash looked up and smirked. With the gym ruined, a new advantage was available to him; there were no more walls or ceiling that would hinder or limit Pidgeot's flight capabilities. "Pidgeot, take to the sky!" Ash ordered, seizing the opportunity. Pidgeot nodded and flapped her wings, gaining altitude quickly.

"Careful Ash, while both Pidgeot and Slaking took part in fighting Team Rocket's robot, Pidgeot had more active participation and thus is more tired, don't do anything drastic," Latios advised.

Ash nodded. "I know, Latios."

Latios chuckled. "No you didn't."

Ash frowned. "Right, I didn't. Damn psychic reading."

Norman took advantage of Ash's temporary distraction at talking with Latios, and quickly ordered Slaking to counter Pidgeot's airborne supremacy. "Slaking, use the gym's remains to improvise a Rock Throw!" he ordered. Slaking nodded in confirmation before reaching down and grabbing two large pieces of debris from the gym's remains. As fast as he could, he observed his opponent's flight movements and proceeded to throw them with all his might towards his airborne adversary.

Ash quickly refocused on the battle after Norman's Pokémon had made his move. "Pidgeot, dodge that!" he countered. The Normal/Flying-type chirped and flapped her wings to bolt up, dodging the two rocks that had been thrown her way. "Now, counter with Air Slash!" Ash followed up, changing his strategy to an offensive-based one.

Pidgeot reared back her great wings and flapped them with tremendous force, generating a great clap as she sent a pair of blades produced with winds so strong they were a clearly visible bright white in color flying through the air. Slaking raised his bulky hands and braced himself for the worst of the imminent impact. The wind blades collided against the Normal-type's hands with a harsh sound echoing along with Slaking's cry of pain, but he stayed vigilant, resisting the collision without budging an inch.

Norman growled softly, heavily disliking the new situation that he was now stuck in._ 'I need to bring Pidgeot closer to the ground. From the air she'd just pick on Slaking bit by bit with long range attacks, and Slaking will never get a hit on her with that kind of speed…' _he thought direly as he looked towards the new battlefield.

Ash smirked. "Pidgeot, use Air Slash again!" He commanded. Pidgeot flapped her great wings again, sending a second pair of bright white-colored wind blades towards the Lazy Pokémon.

Norman brightened up just as Pidgeot began her second offensive. "That's it! Ugh, why didn't I think of it earlier!? Slaking, grab a big rock and shield yourself with it!" the Gym Leader yelled forcefully. "That'll do the trick!"

Slaking roared loudly and grabbed a rather big chunk of rock and held it in front of him, using it as a huge shield to protect himself against the Normal/Flying-type's attack. Sadly for Norman, it didn't do the trick as he had expected. Pidgeot's wind blades smashed into the rock with unprecedented force, completely cleaving through it and splitting the improvised barrier in three. The blades then smashed into Slaking's face and chest with lessened power, but there was still a respectable amount of strength behind the attack. Slaking cried out loudly in pain and was hurled back a few feet; the recoil made him lose his balance on the unsteady debris-covered ground and he tripped before landing heavily on his stomach, panting and coughing. Then he cried out again as the rock slabs that failed as his shield landed on top of him, further injuring him. Norman groaned in dismay. "What!? Just how powerful is your Pidgeot, Ash!?" he asked incredulously, eyeing the avian Pokémon with surprise.

Ash grinned enthusiastically. "She's plenty powerful!" He answered with pride. Pidgeot nodded joyously in agreement, visibly very glad her trainer was happy and proud for her.

"No! Dad, you can do it! Don't let your awesome Slaking be defeated!" Max cheered with a mixture of desperation and hope. May and Caroline nodded, silently cheering their family member on. Bianca, along with Latios, Latias and Pikachu, simply watched the battle silently, since Ash was doing pretty well on his own and didn't seem to need any help.

Norman growled as he clenched his fists. "Slaking, you can do it! Stand up!" he encouraged the Pokémon that was his trump card and last hope against Pokémon Trainer challengers. Slaking slowly used his arms to force himself up as exhaustion and fatigue began to overtake the Pokémon. Admittedly, Pidgeot had her own fair share of damage and exhaustion, but she was clearly in better shape to handle it.

Ash smiled. "Let's give him a chance. Pidgeot, get close and use a Peck Attack!" He ordered,. Pidgeot chirped to confirm the order and then dove towards Slaking.

Latios sighed. "And I told him not to do anything drastic…" he muttered quickly. Pikachu frowned and nodded. Ash didn't seem to notice the comment, though.

Norman did not like the taunt Ash had fired at him, and it only served to rile up his and Slaking's determinations to continue the battle. "Slaking, give that Pidgeot a Thunder Punch!" Slaking nodded, growled, and raised his right fist, the clenched hand crackling with electricity.

"Pidgeot, stop!" Ash shouted. Pidgeot quickly spread her wings and balanced her body upright, coming to an abrupt halt just as Slaking hurled the electric punch at her. With her sudden stop in the air, the punch missed completely, but it did come short of her by a few feet. "Now land and use Wing Attack!" Ash continued, not letting go of his attacking momentum. Pidgeot landed and her talons gripped the rocks firmly, using it as leverage to smack a glowing wing into Slaking's side, opposite of his electrified fist. He yelped in pain and fell to the debris again, landing with a heavy thud.

"Hurry, strike back with Focus Punch!" Norman quickly followed, trying to change the match in his favor, but the effort almost seemed futile. Slaking stood on his hands and knees, panting heavily from the damage that was rapidly building up. He closed his eyes to calm his mind for a second as he focused, one arm beginning to glow brightly as he channeled all his power to it.

"Use Peck before he can attack!" Ash countered rapidly. Pidgeot hopped forward as her beak began to glow white and enlarged slightly. Slaking whirled around rapidly, swinging his glowing fist towards her, but it was too late as Ash's Pokémon was right up in his face. She smashed her beak on his forehead, and then followed up with a series of very rapid stabs with her beak at his chest. With his focus broken, his Focus Punch attack dissipated harmlessly. Slaking cried out in pain at each stab, stumbling back. He fell onto his knees, crying out in pain and exhaustion. He looked up at Pidgeot, growling in anger. Pidgeot panted softly as she too was getting tired, but she didn't let it get the better of her. She spread her beautiful wings coolly, proudly displaying her power.

Norman growled in frustration. _'No! This can't be… no matter what I do, Ash is simply two steps ahead of me, and he is just too good… I need to beat him fast before Slaking runs out of juice. His Pidgeot is tired as well, so all I need is one clean hit…' _the Gym Leader thought, deeply concerned at the way Pidgeot and Ash were dominating the battle. It was the first time in months that a trainer was good enough to put him in this predicament. "Slaking, use Return!" he roared. "Defeat her once and for all!" Slaking roared in unison with Norman, banging his arms on his chest with all his might without caring for his injuries. A veil of powerful pink energy began to slowly encircle Slaking.

"Pidgeot, fly back and them come around with an Aerial Ace!" Ash dictated. Pidgeot flapped her wings and took flight, easily ascending a couple dozen feet in seconds. She turned around, diving towards the ground and then pulling up just a couple of feet over it, charging at Slaking with the Flying-type attack. Dozens of streaks of wind surrounded the avian Pokémon as she made her quick approach.

Slaking roared and charged at Pidgeot, the energy around him blazing furiously as he drew upon every single feeling he had for Norman to make his attack as strong as possible and win this battle for him. "Beat her down!" Norman encouraged his most trusted Pokémon.

Ash smirked coolly as he switched tactics, a plan long ago formed in his mind. "Dodge and use Giga Impact."

Norman gasped. "What? But she's already attacking with Aerial Ace!"

Slaking threw himself at Pidgeot with all his might, but the flying type vanished in a burst of speed, leaving only a gust of wind from her movement which blew past the confused Slaking. He looked around as the Return attack dissipated, fearing where the next attack could come from. Norman's eyes widened as he caught sight of the Pokémon directly above his own. "Slaking, above you!" he warned, but it was far too late. The Lazy Pokémon breathed convulsively and looked up, just in time to see a massive Pidgeot-sized lavender and golden beam of energy streaking towards him. Pidgeot rammed into Slaking from a perfect upright angle, smashing him into the rocks. A huge blast followed as the Giga Impact's energy was released all in one strike, the end result shaking the ground and making everyone cover their eyes at the amount of dust the detonation of energy lifted.

Latios smiled. "It's over," he muttered quickly.

When the blast was over, silence descended across the devastated gym. "No! Slaking!" Norman yelled in concern as the dust began to slowly settle. When visibility was again available, Norman saw the scene he was dreading. Slaking was lying face down in a rather sizeable crater in the rocky debris, his eyes turned to swirls that signaled his unconsciousness. Pidgeot was standing over him proudly, her talons digging slightly into his fur and wings spread wide in victory. She herself was also panting, exhaustion rippling through her, but she won the fight. She displayed her triumph with immense pride.

Ash cheered happily as he leapt up and down joyously. "We won! We won!" he cried out excitedly before sprinting towards Pidgeot. She hopped off Slaking and received her beloved trainer with a warm and loving embrace with her wings.

"Noooooo!" Max cried out, sobbing his eyes out on Caroline's blouse. May just smiled sadly, glad to have witnessed such a great battle but not liking how much Norman's defeat upset Max.

Norman sighed, knowing it was over. He held up a Pokéball and returned his defeated Slaking. "You did great, my friend…I'm proud of you," he whispered to the Pokéball.

Kenny raised the corresponding flag. "And the winner of this gym battle with a three to one score, due to Pidgeot and Phanpy still being able to fight, is Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town!" He declared officially.

"We won! The first Gym badge is ours!" Ash cried happily, wrapped tightly in Pidgeot's wings as the Flying-Type Pokémon nuzzled him carefully, making sure not to injure her trainer with her beak like their first reunion. Latias smiled tenderly at the cute scene.

Norman walked to Ash, a soft smile on his face. "Well Ash, you won fair and square. I already said all I needed to say earlier, so there is nothing new I have to praise for you. All I can do now is give you this, the Balance Badge. Congratulations," he said, holding the small badge out to Ash once again.

This time, Ash gladly took the badge. He raised it proudly and posed dramatically. "Yes! I've won the Balance Badge!" the Pokémon trainer announced excitedly.

Pikachu chuckled at the sight. "That simply never gets old," he commented in amusement.

May hummed. "You know dad, Ash beat you and he didn't use his strongest Pokémon, you're losing your touch," she teased.

Norman sweatdropped. "Thanks for pointing that out May," he returned uncertainly. He couldn't help but wonder how the battle would have gone if Ash had used Latias or Latios against him.

"Waaaah!" Max kept crying inconsolably on Caroline's blouse, completely heartbroken. The mother just sighed wearily and hugged her dear son while hoping that her child would calm down somehow. Latias frowned, feeling saddened for the kid; witnessing one's idol being defeated that badly was certainly detrimental to one's emotions.

"Why don't you give him a small ride, Latios? He'd love that," Bianca suggested.

Latios sighed. _"But… I've only carried two humans on my back, you and Ash," _he protested. _"I'm not exactly eager to carry another."_

Bianca smiled softly and slowly petted his neck, scratching the barely noticeable feathers. "One little flight isn't gonna hurt, so I don't see why you can't give him a ride." Latios frowned at his peers' recommendations but nodded nevertheless. He went over to Caroline and Max and lowered his neck, silently offering a free ride.

Caroline smiled. "Hey, Max, look who's here."

Max looked up, and immediately brightened up when he saw Latios so close. He wiped his tears, trying to calm down. "H-hi Latios!"

Caroline grabbed Max by his armpits before slowly lifting him up and placing him on Latios's back, making the young child squeal in delight. "Hold on tight, Max," Caroline advised. The child nodded eagerly and held onto Latios's neck tightly, eyes filled with admiration and happiness. The eon Pokémon took off, flying around the nearby woods with no real course in mind, just flying around in wide circles and turns while giving his emotional passenger a thrilling ride. Through it all, Max kept squealing and laughing in joy, his pain at Norman's defeat forgotten for the time being.

Norman smiled as he watched his son flying with Latios in the distance. "So, Ash," he began as means to stir up a conversation. "What are you going to do now?"

"Well, I'll go to the Pokémon Center to get everyone healed from the battle and spend the night there," Ash answered the Gym Leader's question. "After that I'll set out for the next Gym first thing in the morning!"

Norman nodded. "That's the spirit. What about you, May?" He inquired, turning to look at his daughter.

May hummed, looking down at Torchic. "I think I'll stay here at home a couple more days. The Gym was destroyed, so I guess I'll remain here for a bit, just in case. And also, I want to get used to Torchic and get along with him better while with your Pokémon, Dad, before I set out myself."

"A wise choice, May," Caroline said, approving of her older child's decision. "It's better to set out to the unknown while already being in sync with your Pokémon, than when you are untrained."

Ash snorted. "That reminds me of me and Pikachu. I set out and we hated each other at first. That got us into a lot of trouble and a near-death encounter," he said, glaring at Pikachu with a death-defying stare. The Electric-type simply whistled innocently as if he didn't remember a thing about that fateful day. Norman, Caroline and Kenny laughed while May looked down at Torchic in concern. The little Fire-type just chirped at her.

Fifteen minutes later, the setting sun adorned the landscape as Latios finally returned and dropped the thrilled and happy Max back to his parents. The boy immediately ran and hugged his dad in joy. "Well, I'll be going now," Ash announced, returning Pidgeot back to her Pokéball.

"Alright," Norman said, hugging his son back. "I hope we meet again Ash, and I wish you the best of luck on your journey onwards to the Hoenn League. If today's battle was anything to go by, you'll_ really_ be an opponent to be careful of."

Ash smirked. "I'm always a tough opponent. Anyways, bye! It's getting late!" he called out as he turned and walked towards the city, hoping to come across any useful signs to get to the Pokémon Center. His fellow companions passed the time in their own ways. Bianca simply followed him while admiring the scenery while Latias squealed childishly, turned invisible and tackled Latios, and then flew away, inviting him to a game of tag while they walked. Her older brother shrugged, activated his cloaking powers as well and raced after her, letting her have her fun.

Norman just watched them leave, but frowned as he turned towards the sight of his destroyed gym. "This… is going to be troublesome. Let's go home honey; it looks like I've got plenty of phone calls to make." He walked to Caroline's side, kissed her softly, and then walked down the street. His family followed him.

* * *

><p>The next day…<p>

A warm and tranquil morning greeted the metropolis of the sea, the vivid sun in the sky giving the vast blue ocean and the scenic city in the middle of it a bright, warm morning hue. Alto Mare was active even from early hours with tourist's boats and large cargo ships going in and out of the city continuously, and every once in a while large ferries were also present on the scene, each of them filled with tourists who were traveling to and from the island city.

Meanwhile, near the southern edge of the city. The father Latios floated calmly at the very edge of the city's coastline, watching with a fond smile as his beloved mate left the ocean city. They had spent the rest of yesterday and the night on the city, but right now on this morning she was required to do some important tasks and as such had to leave. No one in the city noticed the Legendary Pokémon leave the city because of Latios' powerful illusion abilities, easily concealing his mate as she made her departure.

The ancient Latios sent her a couple more telepathic temporary farewells, and after deciding when and where they'd meet later in the day, he turned and flew back into the city. He had his own little matters to attend to…

In another area of the city inside a small wooden workshop, an elderly man with a robust physical complex, a white round beard and a clean bald head, wearing blue overalls and a red shirt was working with great effort constructing the main support of a new gondola. He was Lorenzo, the caretaker of the Alto Mare Museum and a traditional gondola builder. He wiped sweat from his brow and put his tools down, taking a deep breath and inspecting his work. Nodding once, he approved of his handiwork.

He had gotten out of bed very early, like every day, to start working. His daily tasks involved going to open the museum and getting everything ready there and then returning to his shop to work on the gondolas for the rest of the morning. After that was taken care of, he'd then return to Alto Mare's museum in the early noon. But age was beginning to catch up to him; he found his efficiency dropping each day as much as he hated to admit the truth. He sat down to take a few minutes of rest. _'Well, I might as well check on the garden to rest a little,_' Lorenzo thought, thus deciding what to do.

He slowly stood up and walked towards the back of his shop, opening a large hidden doorway that led towards the Secret Garden. He smiled as the wonderful sight of the ever-green garden came into view, huge towering trees and crystal clear water, flowers of many different colors and a fresh natural scent, it was all wonderful. The Secret Garden was indeed a great treasure, hidden right in the middle of a city.

He smiled and walked into it, marveling at the wondrous sight across all directions that the hidden paradise offered. He followed one of the marble walkways towards the center of the garden, where a magnificent pedestal stood. He walked in a very slow pace almost matching his age. He wanted to enjoy the scenery and beauty of nature for as long as he could, of the garden that so lovingly held so many memories of his life.

'_Though… nothing will ever be the same without Latias and Latios…'_ Lorenzo lamented sadly as he tried to hold back tears. As beautiful as the garden was, nothing in it could replace the beauty and life that Latias and Latios brought to it. Without the two siblings, it seemed that the sanctuary lacked a heart, a life. Perhaps, it just felt too plain and simple without the two Legendary Dragons.

Lorenzo looked at the fountain as he slowly walked towards it, focusing on the soft stream of water flowing from it and into the garden's main pond fondly. Everything seemed perfectly fine, of course, save for the perpetual hole in the garden's heart that Latias and Latios leaving with Ash left behind. He slowly walked up the steps of the shrine towards the pedestal. He smiled and looked down into it.

And that's when he noticed something was very, _very _wrong. The Soul Dew wasn't there. It was gone. The Pedestal was_ empty_.

Lorenzo gasped, his eyes slowly widening in fear. "Oh _no_…" He whispered, his voice filled with dread and terror. He looked around desperately, hoping to find any sign of a thief or the Soul Dew, but there was nothing; the usual green scenery of the Secret Garden was all that greeted his sight. He gulped and took a few steps back. "Calm down Lorenzo," he said to himself level-headedly, hoping to calm the heart attack he was sure he'd get in a few seconds. He kept looking around, trying to calm himself. He prayed to the bottom of his heart that the thief wasn't someone like Annie and Oakley.

Then he realized something even more puzzling. Even without the Soul Dew, the water was still flowing. "Huh?" he questioned, completely clueless_. 'When I entered the garden… the water was still flowing… how could it do that if the Soul Dew is gone?'_ he questioned himself, looking around for any sign of an impending danger due to the Soul Dew being missing, but there was none. No signs of the water retreating and destroying Alto Mare, no sign of anything out of the ordinary.

A small, clearly _not-_human chuckle reached Lorenzo's ears, nearly making him jump in surprise. The elderly human quickly whirled around, facing the back of the garden where he presumed the sound had come from. "Who's there!?" He asked sharply with a strong and defensive tone.

"_Oh, it's just me,"_ the father Latios answered telepathically, slowly hovering down from the canopies of the Secret Garden's highest trees.

Lorenzo's breath hitched slightly, but he did feel relieved that the other person in the garden wasn't a threat, though for some reason he could swear the telepathic voice sounded rather different than he remembered. "Latios! You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Lorenzo scolded the slowly incoming eon dragon, huffing in deep breaths as he felt relieved. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with Ash? Wh-" He froze when the Latios got closer, suddenly noticing that this Latios clearly wasn't the Latios he was thinking about. It was very easy to see the Latios before him was not Ash's Latios. But if he wasn't Ash's Latios… then who was he?

The ancient eon Pokémon chuckled again in a soft tone, stopping his descent until he hovered a few feet off the ground while staying a few feet from the human before him. _"You're right. I'm not him,"_ he answered curtly.

"Y-yeah, I can see that," Lorenzo answered, still frozen in shock. It was clear this Latios wasn't the one that departed with Ash a while ago. He wasn't the one he had known since he was a child and grown up with. It was someone else. The color of this Latios' feathers was a bit darker and duller than the Latios he used to know, whose down was a bright, vivid and intense blue. Another clear difference was the size. The Latios before him was clearly a lot bigger than Ash's Latios, perhaps five or six feet longer, with his chest and wingspan also joining the drastic size increase. His eyes were also darker, approaching a wine-red color, which clearly differed from the bright red Ash's Latios had. Lorenzo found those eyes captivating, they felt so… powerful, so wise, so _old_. Like countless centuries of life were reflected in the wine-colored orbs, yet at the same time they had a gentle feeling to them. The Latios' eyes had a deep look in them that held a power and age that the teenage Latios he knew couldn't possibly possess. Lorenzo gasped loudly; it was then that it clicked into place who this Latios was. As impossible and unrealistic as it sounded, it was the only answer possible. Lorenzo looked at the stone pedestal, thinking about the missing Soul Dew, and then looked back at the Latios hovering before him. "Y-you… you a-are… no… it's not possible… you are the father… the fa-father Latios… the one who brought the water and created Alto Mare… you… are h-him?" He asked, stuttering from the sheer shock his presence brought as well as the torrent of questions raging in his mind. In the process, he staggered a few steps back from the emotions that his mind was bombarded with.

Latios smiled softly, his body looking completely calm and relaxed. _"Yes, you are correct," _he answered mentally.

Lorenzo nodded slowly, still having a lot of trouble processing this. "But… how?" He asked breathlessly. "You should… you were…" He spoke, the shock rendering him unable to finish his sentence. "Dead?" he uttered incredulously.

"_Yes, I was dead. And it was only made worse by many unfortunate circumstances. But ultimately, I am a Legendary Pokémon and nothing can change that. Death isn't something that can truly stop a deity like me forever,"_ Latios answered simply, a soft smile on his features. _"If I 'die' I'll be back sooner or later. I am immortal. Death is a mere triviality for me and all Legendary Pokémon. We are eternal. We are everlasting for reality and existence."_

Lorenzo blinked in confusion, as what the eon dragon said was not the answer he was expecting. "That sounds… rather complicated," he commented, still struggling to process the entire situation. Lorenzo looked over at the Latios. He looked so different from the Latios he knew his entire life and another clear difference that Lorenzo just realized was their mental voice. Ash's Latios, who had only learned telepathy a few days before leaving Alto Mare, had a more youthful and bright voice, like the young teen he was. The Latios before him had a very strong, deep and masculine voice, clearly resembling that of a full grown adult, a _very_ authoritative and powerful one.

Latios chuckled at Lorenzo's thoughts but didn't say anything about that, so instead he decided to provide an answer to the old man's comment. _"It's actually much simpler once it's understood_," he explained telepathically. _"We Legendary Pokémon are deities who protect and manage the world. We can't be gone, for nature needs us to remain stable. Even if we die, ultimately we still exist and our wills still rule nature, one way or another. It's made in our very souls, we are _gods_. Death does not mean the end of us," _Latios explained as briefly and clearly as he could.

"That's… just… wow," Lorenzo said in awe, shocked at the apparent power and importance Legendaries had, he'd never realized they were like that. But as amazing as the story was, another big worry quickly shot back to the front of Lorenzo's thoughts. He took a deep breath to calm his shock and steady his voice. "Latios, with you now back from the dead… without the Soul Dew, what will happen with the water? What will happen to Alto Mare?" Lorenzo asked in concern, still very worried about Alto Mare's safety.

Latios smiled at the human. _"Oh, don't worry about Alto Mare's safety. A dear friend of mine, Kyogre, took care of that,"_ he said telepathically. _"Alto Mare will forever be safe."_

Lorenzo sighed in relief, happy to know his beloved hometown was not in any immediate danger. "May I ask how Kyogre managed to do that?" he questioned curiously, his attention fully centered on the older eon Pokémon.

"_Kyogre is a Legendary Pokémon; she's the goddess who created the world's water and oceans and thus is their eternal and ultimate ruler. The area that surrounded Alto Mare was grassland in the past, connected to the Johto Region. But during a rather unfortunate event that ultimately resulted in my 'death', I turned this entire region into an ocean. That's why the water needed me, in the Soul Dew, to remain here. I was the anchor that kept the water linked to this area. When I was revived, I asked Kyogre to bind the water to this place, and she did that. As such, this place is now a natural ocean no longer tied to me. There will be no more dangers to Alto Mare in the future,"_ Latios explained with great detail. _"In fact, it is even safer with Kyogre's power here."_

"Wow," Lorenzo couldn't help but utter out in a low tone of voice. "That's… really nice," he said slowly, finding it hard to find any other comment to compliment or answer the elder Latios.

"_Yeah, for this city it is,"_ Latios agreed with a slight and barely noticeable nod. _"As much as my feelings for Alto Mare are bittersweet, perhaps even with a hint of resentment for it, I still created the place and cherish it. Its only right I see to its wellbeing."_

Lorenzo frowned as still many questions raged in his mind, so he decided to start asking by the ones that'd make the best start. "It's… really nice to see you're back among the living Latios, but there is something that greatly confuses me. You said that death wasn't a bother for you and other Legendaries, but then why did you spend over a century dead in the Soul Dew?" He asked curiously, a somber tone in his question. "And… you know… that made you unable to properly be the father of Latias and Latios, your kids… they grew up as orphans."

Latios sighed, a sad look flashing across his face, making Lorenzo wince and wonder if he had asked that too bluntly. The large eon dragon recovered quickly, making Lorenzo feel relieved as the dragon seemed fine. _"Well, technically, I never died, because my soul never left the plane of the living. I think 'incapacitated' would be a more fitting word than death, but I guess it can be called death in your terms of knowledge, so I'll refer to it as such," _Latios said, pausing slightly once his comment ended to change the topic. _"And ah, about that… all the events revolving around why I was forced to spend such a long time in the Soul Dew, about why Latias and Latios had to grow up as orphans, about why their mother couldn't reveal her identity to them, about why their mother couldn't take them away from Alto Mare and raise them on her own in our home, or at least have other legendaries take them and raise them for that matter, why it all turned as bad as it did regarding the early life of my children…It's a very long, dark and complicated story."_

"Sorry if I'm bringing up anything painful but I am a bit curious about all that… I care for Latias and Latios and wish to know the reason they've lived as they have so far," Lorenzo muttered, his gaze silently asking Latios to continue.

"_You see, under normal circumstances, I could have very easily been brought back within hours, if not minutes, after my death. But on this occasion, my death was different,"_ Latios began explaining, pausing slightly to let that sink in, before continuing. _"Over a century ago, when Latios and Latias were still unborn eggs, an evil entity who is a bitter enemy of mine tried to kill me and my children's eggs. The attack came at an unfortunate time as my mate wasn't there, since it was my turn to watch over our eggs. As such, I had to defend them alone. The reason the situation turned so dire was because it wasn't just the natural kind of death that all mortals experience sooner or later; it's a different kind of death, one that delves deeper into the very fabric of existence and life than that. The death of one's very soul. This evil entity has, over the course of time, discovered how to do that. He learned how to end a soul's existence."_

Lorenzo blinked in clear confusion. "Soul Death? Wow… I… I didn't know a soul could die."

Latios nodded. _"They can and it is very possible. It is something only few beings know how to do. Soul Deaths are extremely dangerous. It is not something to be taken lightly. Reviving someone physically dead is possible and actually rather easy for the correct deities, but reviving a soul that has perished is something extremely complicated that takes a _very_ long time to restore and can only be done by Arceus himself. And, for unborn souls like those of my children, it was irreversible. It was definitive death and cessation of existence. Arceus is able to through a rather long and complicated process restore a deceased soul or a soul that has stopped existing, but one that died before it was properly born, it is even out of his grasp."_

Lorenzo nodded slowly, as that terrible truth sank in. "That's… just horrible. I mean… I can't understand how souls work, but… just hearing it it's despicable," he said, shaking slightly. He couldn't imagine what it would be like if the Latias and Latios he knew and loved all his life had never existed to begin with.

Latios frowned, gaze held low. _"While I could have recovered from a soul death, though after a very long time, my unborn babies could not, which is why this entity chose that precise time to attack, when my children were at their most vulnerable and would be affected the most, the only gap of time where he could truly do permanent damage to them. As I said, all Legendaries are everlasting, and to those who are conceived, their time as eggs are the only time they are ever vulnerable. So, knowing the cost of a defeat,_ _I fought hard with all my power to protect them, and I was able to beat the evil entity and save my children, but it cost me my life, and… that evil entity managed to curse me before I defeated him. My weakened soul was trapped in the Soul Dew, preventing my revival, and dooming my children to their orphaned and lonely childhood," _he said, his mental tone saddened and let down, disappointed in himself for being unable to save his children from the fate of being orphans. _'That curse trapped me and my children in Alto Mare, the danger of a soul death still lingering for me. Which is why, they were unable to leave the city.'_

"Oh… my…" Lorenzo muttered, clearly impacted by the story. "Latios… I'm really sorry to hear that…"

"_The curse is finally gone now; it was broken by Annie and Oakley's stupidity and Ash's bravery. I am free at last,"_ Latios said changing the subject to a brighter topic. _"That is why I allowed Latios and Latias to leave the city that day. They were safe and free to explore the world they were denied."_

Lorenzo nodded. "Latias and Latios… their youth was so hard Latios, they were orphans… there were times when they truly needed a parent to be there for them. My dad and myself did our best, but we could never fill that gap. What will happen to them now?" He asked.

Latios smiled fondly as feelings of bringing the entire family back together washed into his mind. _"They'll meet me _very_ soon and learn who their mother is at last. It is time for them to learn the truth surrounding their life at Alto Mare and their parents, and finally reunite with us as a family," _he answered, life and happiness flowing back into his voice.

Lorenzo smiled, heart warmed by that. "That's… really wonderful Latios. It might be a little hard for them, to suddenly be introduced to the parents they've lacked… but Latias and Latios will be thrilled in the end, Latios," Lorenzo said kindly, but then he frowned. "Latios… Latios… I meant, the first time I said Latios was Ash's, the second was you," he clarified, and then sighed. "Both you and your child are Latios. How are we supposed to tell you two apart?" Lorenzo asked, rather mixed up with the names seeing as both eons could be referred to as Latios.

Latios laughed softly. _"That's actually rather easy. I _am _named Latios, seeing as I'm the first Latios that ever existed. And as for my son, he has a name. I and my mate were unable to name them due to the curse and the circumstances I mentioned to you earlier. But when we reunite with them soon, they'll be given the names they should have _always_ had,"_ he answered, a fond smile tracing his lips. _"The true names they should have received the second they hatched, the names that have always been their birthright."_

Lorenzo nodded once. "Oh, I didn't know Latios and Latias had names," he said, chuckling softly. "But I can see why, any parent names their children. So, what are their names?" He asked eagerly, wanting to know the names the twin's parents had decided for them.

Latios shook his head once. _"Sorry, can't say," _he said, his mental voice oddly serious.

Lorenzo frowned. "Huh, why not?" He asked, confused as to why the father didn't want to say the names the two young eon dragons currently traveling with Ash would receive.

"_While there are many who already know their names, I promised myself that the second I was revived the next two souls who would have the privilege of hearing the names from me would be my children themselves. It's only right for them to have that privilege. You can learn their names next time you see them,"_ Latios answered, a kind tone to his telepathic voice. _"After all they've gone through, they deserve the honor, so I'm not speaking them to anyone until I meet them at last." _

Lorenzo sighed. "Oh, well… I guess it's only right that the first ones you tell their names to after you come back to life is them." The old caretaker smiled. "It's okay Latios, I think I can wait until I see them again."

Latios nodded with a slightly faded smile. _"Thank you for understanding my wish."_

"You're welcome, Latios," Lorenzo said. He hummed, eyeing the large eon dragon. "Latios? When… when will you go back and meet your children? They need their parents."

"_I know they do, I know,"_ Latios said softly, his thoughts centered on his beloved children._ "Soon, very soon, they'll meet their mother and father. They'll meet us at last. I think in a week, two at most."_

"Why take that long? You're a Latios, you're fast, you could go and meet them now," Lorenzo asked.

"_I want our meeting to be perfect. There are some things I need to prepare for it. And most importantly, there are some loose ends I need to tie up before I can join my children,"_ Latios answered, his mental voice a bit hard when he said that. _"I'm a little busy at the moment."_

Lorenzo blinked. "Tie up some loose ends? I don't like the sound of that the last bit."

"_Nor should you. Remember that evil entity I mentioned that caused all this misery?"_ Latios asked.

Lorenzo frowned, dreading the worst, but sadly it was too obvious and too easy to expect. "Let me guess, he's still out there."

"_Yes, as much as I'd love to simply ignore everything and go to my children right now without a care in the world to shower them with my love, I can't. I need to settle some things first to ensure the safety of those I care for,"_ Latios answered sadly. _"He's out there. Waiting… Watching… Plotting… Preparing… Since he failed to carry out his task to soul kill me and my children, it's almost certain he'll try again, even if the results won't be as good as if he had succeeded when they were eggs. I know he will come again, or he'll strike another legendary, I'm not his only enemy among our kind. But next time, I'll be ready."_

Lorenzo shivered, looking around almost in a sense of paranoia."What if he does something to Alto Mare? He cursed you here, so it's a pretty safe bet Alto Mare is always present in his mind. It's… unsafe… with no guardians anymore… We're helpless."

Latios nodded, understanding the elderly man's concern. _"That's also part of what I meant with loose ends. When I meet my children, I want to spend time with them without a worry in the world, so before I head out to meet them, I'll make sure this guy can't do anything to Alto Mare, and most importantly, my kids themselves. I'll make sure everything's perfect so nothing interrupts my family reunion."_

"Yeah," Lorenzo agreed. "Latias and Latios wouldn't like it if you met them and then had to go take care of this evil thing right away. But… are they safe right now?" He asked, concerned for the two teen Legends. "Seeing as, well, you're here."

Latios nodded once again. _"They are safe. Another Legendary Pokémon who is a very close friend of mine is silently watching over them and protecting them while I'm here. If he tries to get them, he'll be stopped."_

"It's good to know that they are safe, but who is this so-called evil entity that seems to be the cause of all this?" Lorenzo asked.

Latios shook his head as he refused to provide the identity of the threat. _"You wouldn't understand much of him or his origins or what he stands for; explaining his deeds and power will only worry you or make you afraid. It is not your concern. Only know that his days of being free are counted."_

Lorenzo frowned, but nodded. "Yeah, I guess that's true," he said, not really eager to learn about a really dangerous evil thing that had Alto Mare close on his mind.

"_Once I'm done making sure this guy can't harm Alto Mare or my children, I'll get ready to meet them,"_ Latios added, just to clarify his objectives. _"If I can't find him before the time to reunite with my family arrives, I'll just make sure he can't get near this city or anything important. I'm making sure to lock out as much of his options as I can."_

Lorenzo nodded. "Okay. It's great that your family will finally be together at last Latios," He said kindly, feeling happy for the events that were promised to come. "And I'm sorry this had to happen to you. It's so sad, such a beautiful family that ended up torn apart like this," he added sadly, feeling very pained. He began to feel tears building in his eyes as he thought about the eon twins when they were younger; they had to live a life where they weren't able to see their parents, no matter how much they desired or needed them.

Latios frowned with an extremely sad expression. _"Yes. It was a horrible experience for me and even now that it's over, it is still very painful. For millions of years I and my mate desired to have children, and when we finally became parents, this tragedy happened. Watching my children's hatching, their early youth, and their growth into the young teens they are now, all from the Soul Dew, being completely unable to talk to them, raise them, care for them, educate them, teach them, or just show them each day how much I love them. It was very hurtful for me even as I lay in the Soul Dew. It was like a never-ending nightmare, being so close to my children yet so far away at the same time. I wished every day I could help them and raise them. Every time my kids truly needed a father to be there for them it hurt my soul to know I was there, but that I was unable to do anything for them. The most I could do was watch as other legendaries and their first human caretakers, your parents, aided me and my mate in taking care of them instead of us, watching helplessly as others did the job that was rightfully ours," _he said in a genuinely hurt tone as his gaze slowly drifted to the pedestal where the Soul Dew used to lay. "_But it will soon change, for the better,"_ he added, a shine of light returning to his deep voice, revealing how eager he was to finally meet his children in flesh and blood.

Lorenzo struggled to hold back tears at the father's emotional speech. "I… I wish the best for your meeting to come. You've been through enough already, it is time things become better on your part."

Latios looked at him and smiled. _"Thank you. My children hatched and were taken care of at first by your parents Lorenzo, and when they were unable to, you continued to take care of them. Even if there was always heavy assistance from the several Legendaries that took time from their duties to help them in their early childhood, I am still in your debt for your family's part," _Latios said gratefully, bowing his neck slightly in respect to the elderly man._ "Thank you."_

"You're welcome Latios, it was my pleasure to help raise Latias and Latios as best as I could," Lorenzo said back with a kind smile, glad to be recognized for it by the elder deity. "Could I ask a small favor in return?"

Latios nodded. _"Sure."_

"Bianca. She'll travel with Ash's group. Could you make sure she's okay? Latios and Latias care for her, but, it's always good to be sure," Lorenzo requested.

"_Bianca is a good girl; I've watched her interacting with my children from the Soul Dew. Don't worry, I'll see to her safety,"_ Latios promised.

"Thanks, Latios," Lorenzo said gratefully. "So, what are you going to do now?"

"_I came to check the garden. Now I'm going to the Alto Mare museum to make some changes to the Defense Mechanism of Alto Mare,"_ Latios replied.

"I'll go with you, just give me a minute to close my shop," Lorenzo said as he turned around to make the walk back to his workshop.

Latios' eyes glowed softly. _"Done."_

Lorenzo blinked. "What?"

"_I already locked your shop's doors,"_ was Latios' rather blunt response.

"Ah," Lorenzo muttered. "But what about my tools and all that? It might be dangerous leaving them on the floor."

Latios' eyes glowed again, tapping into his psychic powers and putting all of the items and tools in Lorenzo's workshop in order. _"Done, again."_

Lorenzo chuckled. "Psychic powers. I suppose they're very useful?"

"_Yes, they are,"_ Latios answered.

Lorenzo frowned. "Mind waiting for me? I'm rather old, so the walk to the Museum will take a bit of time for me. Sorry."

Latios laughed softly. _"I've got that covered too."_ His eyes glowed brightly, and the world around them turned into a searing white color, making Lorenzo cover his eyes.

As fast as they came, the lights died down not even a second later. Lorenzo opened his eyes when he felt it was safe, only to gasp in surprise when he noticed they were in the Museum, right in front of the Defense Mechanism of Alto Mare. Lorenzo looked around, confirming they were indeed in front of the DMA. "Wow, I didn't know you could teleport, Latios," he commented, idly surprised.

Latios shook his head. "_I can't teleport. Teleportation would be a rather redundant ability on a Latios or Latias. I simply flew from the garden to here."_

Lorenzo gasped again. "But… that felt as fast as the blink of an eye!" he protested in shock.

"_I'm that fast,"_ Latios said simply, a sly smirk on his features.

Lorenzo frowned. "But you'd have to go at supersonic speeds for that, and that'd be deadly to an unprotected human."

Latios nodded, not really feeling weary from the fact that he had to answer so much of this elderly human's questions. _"I know. Remember that light you saw? I created a protective sphere of psychic power around us, locking the air inside it. That way, even if I flew many times faster than the speed of sound, nothing dangerous happened inside. All the dangerous heat from the wind friction, the air pressure, or the dangerous kinetic energy, I protected your frail body from all of it,"_ he explained. _"And also made sure those physical forces didn't cause trouble at my arrival point."_

"Okay," Lorenzo said, rather shocked by it. "That's… rather impressive. Stuff like that is dangerous."

Latios chuckled. _"Not for me. I know _all_ the laws of the universe per their exact writing by Arceus. I know my ways around those that are within my powers to mess with."_

"Oh," Lorenzo said quietly, and then he looked around, noting that the museum was filled with tourists and numerous visitors, as well as the museum staff. Oddly, they didn't seem to have noticed the rather big eon dragon yet. "Latios… uh, you're visible, shouldn't you hide?" He asked, feeling rather confused as to why no one seemed to notice them yet.

Latios shook his head_. "They can't see me. I'm projecting an illusion over the entire area, manipulating what everyone sees to my desires. As such, you can see and hear me perfectly, but no one else in the room can."_

"What about me? They'll think I'm crazy if they see me talking to thin air, in that case," Lorenzo said, chuckling softly.

"_I'm hiding you in the illusion too, so no one interrupts our conversation,"_ Latios answered, looking up at the Defense Mechanism of Alto Mare.

"You… you're really something else Latios," Lorenzo said, more and more impressed by the eon dragon's abilities by the second. The difference in power between the father and his son was very clear with each passing minute. Just how much was he capable of?

"_Thanks,"_ Latios said appreciatively.

Lorenzo followed his gaze, up towards the Defense Mechanism of Alto Mare. "What happened that night, Latios? Is… is this machine evil or something? It nearly killed us all in the aftermath that it generated."

"_It's not evil. I and my mate made it,"_ Latios said back, his tone rather offended.

"Oh… then why did you, as the Soul Dew, got corrupted and shattered and all that when the Machine was used?" Lorenzo asked, curious as to that dark night's events, knowing he could get many answers from the elder eon.

"_For starters, the Soul Dew would have been okay even if it was taken outside the pedestal. That is merely where I rested, but as long as I remained within the boundaries of Alto Mare, nothing bad would happen to me, so the Soul Dew being taken out of the pedestal pool was not what went wrong that night,"_ Latios began, his tone neutral and calm. _"Under a normal situation in which the DMA is used, I and my son would willingly give the DMA all the power it demanded to obey the orders its user gave it. As such, it'd function normally without hurting anyone, but that was not the case that night."_

"Well… I guess that's logical," Lorenzo agreed. "It wouldn't work as well as our treasured defense system if it made a deadly suicide tidal wave every time it was used."

"_Yeah,"_ Latios said, nodding in agreement. _"It wouldn't be useful if it killed you all every time it was used. I and my mate didn't make it that way."_

Lorenzo hummed, letting that sink in. "So… what's next?" he asked.

"_When Annie and Oakley took me out of the pedestal forcefully and kidnapped my son to start the DMA, we resisted the DMA and we denied it our power. As such it malfunctioned and the DMA was depraved of the power that under normal circumstances we'd willingly give it. They started trying to gain that power by force, trying to make me and my son give it power. That's why it became painful for my son, the DMA's normal power extraction process is harmless. However, since the DMA started trying to drain my power too forcefully and I was denying it…"_ Latios smiled widely. _"It accidentally latched onto something else while pulling at my power, the only dark and corrupt-looking thing on me."_

Lorenzo's eyes widened slowly. "The curse…"

Latios nodded again. "_Yes. The DMA accidentally started using the curse to fuel its power demand and as such, it began ripping the curse away from me. That's why my Soul Dew appeared 'corrupted' and a rather evil shade of color. It wasn't just any corruption; it was the curse itself being torn away from me. Now, as a full grown legendary, that curse was already weakening over time. And that night was its last day. The DMA ripped the curse away from me, freeing my children and me from our prison here in Alto Mare. Of course, my Soul Dew was then shattered and things didn't go as nicely as I'd have hoped, but, thanks to Ash, it went well in the end,"_ Latios explained. _"That's why I encouraged Latias and Latios to leave Alto Mare with Ash. I wanted them to explore the world as they were no longer bound to this place. And also, maybe catch a legendary's attention and speed up my revival. Being stuck over a century in a crystal sphere is boring."_

"So that's what happened that night. The Soul Dew was never corrupted, in fact, it was freed! And I guess that the twins got the attention of a Legendary, and since the Legendaries knew you were cursed, seeing them out of the city made them guess you were free, and as such you were revived," Lorenzo finished, already expecting his guess to be true.

"_Yes,"_ Latios said back, smiling. _"My children are free and the curse is gone. Now it's time to reunite, and hunt down the one who caused all of this."_

Lorenzo hummed. "If you were… cursed, along with the twins, to Alto Mare…why were they guardians of Alto Mare?" He asked, confused. "I understand the need to protect the Soul Dew, but… protect the place they are cursed to?"

Latios sighed, sad. _"It was all a story we made up to try and help them cope with all of this. To keep our children in Alto Mare without making them suspect it was in fact a prison for us. Imagine their daily lives if they knew their paradise home was in fact a prison? They wouldn't have been able to grow up knowing the truth of what Alto Mare really is, a golden cage. It was very hard for all of us… that was the best we could come up with to help them settle and live with it. I know my kids won't like to know they were lied to, but it was necessary, and the best I can do is hope they'll forgive me for it,"_ Latios said, frowning.

"I don't really feel happy about Alto Mare being a prison…" Lorenzo commented sadly.

"_I understand why, but it's the truth. Alto Mare was a gilded cage, golden and pretty, but still a prison,"_ Latios said back. _"We prettied it up and disguised it so our children could grow up happy and in a nice home, without knowing the dreadful reality behind it, for if they knew, they'd have been unable to handle it."_

"I… I know it was hard. Sorry to bring it up," Lorenzo apologized, bowing slightly.

"_It's okay,"_ Latios said solemnly. _"It's all over now, and we can finally start afresh as a complete family."_

"So, what are you going to do to the DMA?" Lorenzo asked, very curious. He looked at the Soul Dew-holding pedestal that sprouted from the middle of the machine. "I don't think it can work, seeing as there's no Soul Dew anymore."

"_Precisely, I don't really think the DMA has much practical use anymore… but I'll leave it working, just so it continues being a tourist attraction to Alto Mare, which I'm sure you'll appreciate. And who knows, it might be useful one day,"_ Latios said, shrugging. _"But to answer your question, I am going to modify it to fit its new functions and the new conditions, such as the fact that there is no more Soul Dew."_

"Modify it? And how are you going to do that?" Lorenzo asked, confused as he looked towards the towering Machine. "It doesn't look like it can be modified. It's a huge metallic machine; how are you going to change it?"

Latios smiled. _"Like this."_ His eyes glowed, and his body followed, shining a soft blue color. Lorenzo watched in awe as the DMA began to glow a soft gold color. Slowly, metal cracked as the DMA's external support and lock pillars began to move, giving the machine freedom.

"Uh… okay, this is odd," Lorenzo commented nervously, looking around at the many, _many _tourists and Museum staff that wandered in and out of the DMA chamber, yet none of them noticed the fact that the ancient machine was glowing or moving. "Your illusion is hiding it all, right Latios?" he asked, just to be sure.

"_Don't worry. No matter what I do, no one's going to notice a thing as long as my illusion is in place,"_ Latios answered. His eyes began to glow a stronger shade of bluish white as he exerted his powers over the ancient machine. The DMA's glow began to change in some places to a pinkish light, but it still remained mostly gold-colored everywhere else. Lorenzo took a few steps back as the glow increased in strength, and finally he yelped in surprise and jumped back as a huge halo of energy shot out of the DMA, creating a very dense sphere of mostly golden light around it, with some spots of the sphere glowing in pink and some others glowing blue. The sphere of light covering the entire DMA wasn't just a simple glow of light, as it seemed to have a solid surface, almost like the light was a sphere of glass. It was really beautiful. The sight made Lorenzo think of a miniature sun of pure gorgeous ethereal light, not fire. And on that 'surface' the light seemed to have thousands of tiny inscriptions and symbols on it.

"Wow…" Lorenzo whispered in an awe-filled voice, his eyes looking without distraction at the swirling light that emitted from the DMA, and the solid-surfaced light sphere lined with the thousands of symbols across it. "What… what is all this…" he reached his hand forward, and found to his surprise that he could touch the solid surface of light. "It's so beautiful," Lorenzo commented softly, eyes still wide. The light felt tingly, gentle and warm to his touch. To the aged man, it was perhaps the most wonderful feeling he had felt in his decades of life. "What… what does it say?"

"_This light is an independent discarded part of a Legendary Pokémon's power. It is the core power that makes up the DMA and gives it the energy to do all its functions,"_ Latios began, pointing at the sphere of light._ "All these symbols and inscriptions you see are in fact an ancient language created by Arceus himself for the use of Legendary Pokémon only. These symbols and inscriptions are the DMA's programming. They explain how my mate and I made it, and how the DMA is made to work and operate even if we are not here to give it orders."_

"Wow… this is… Amazing," Lorenzo said slowly, still dumbfounded at the sight. "How… how did you make all this?" He asked.

Latios shook his head before going onto yet another detailed explanation. _"Well, I didn't make it entirely, as I stated. I was in the Soul Dew when this was made. The power that makes up the DMA and what makes it so strong isn't mine, it's my mate's. She's a lot stronger than I am, so she has an easier time doing things like this. The power recognizes me as her mate; as such I can edit it and reprogram it to my desires,"_ the Dragon/Psychic-type spoke as he glided towards the sphere of light. He placed his claws on the surface, his crimson-tinted eyes glowing brightly. The glow that was emitting from his body began to seep into his claws, before entering the sphere of light that sprouted out of the DMA. It began to shine as he started to modify the DMA's core power. The surface of the sphere of light began shifting in many areas, rearranging entire sections and changing inscriptions as Latios moved it to his wishes. Power came and went by, fragments splitting and then reuniting at different places to form entirely different orders and programming for the DMA, changing the way it worked in many aspects and modifying its physical structure.

Lorenzo watched in awe at the impressive show of dancing lights that played in his eyes, the gorgeous light of a high goddess, how it seemed to flow naturally as Latios rearranged it and manipulated it. "Wow…" the shocked elder muttered, unable to tear his eyes from the splendid show of lights.

Latios moved a final part of the power and pressed it back, and the sphere of light ceased to move after all the changes and rearrangements to it were finished. He nodded. _"There, this will do,"_ Latios said, mostly to himself. The DMA rumbled, its power making the air vibrate. The sphere of light surrounding it slowly started to dim as it seeped back inside the DMA, until all of it had poured back inside. The room fell silent, at least for Lorenzo and Latios, because the elderly human could still see the odd sight of tourists, locals or museum workers walking by the DMA chamber and none noticing anything of the older eon's activities.

"What did you do?" Lorenzo questioned, still looking around nervously. All of the museum's tourists and staff kept going around and about in their business, none noticing what had happened even in the slightest. Latios' illusion was indeed powerful.

"_Like I said, I modified it. I made many changes regarding the way it operates and draws power, the way it is activated, what it can and can't do, and made it safer, overall. Also, within the DMA is now a powerful protective instruction that will forever keep that evil entity, my dreaded enemy, away from Alto Mare. Now, just wait and see for the actual changes to take effect,"_ Latios answered, his mental tone simple and without any significant feeling to it. The DMA began to shake slightly as the changes in its power began to take effect on it. Many pieces of it began to change shape, some disappeared entirely and even new ones began to create themselves. The arm with the holding pedestal for the Soul Dew jutting out of the side of the machine slowly began to melt into the machine's bulk, disappearing completely. With no Soul Dew, it was unnecessary. The floor shook slightly as many lines of metal began to pave their way through the floor tiles, following perfect symmetry with the ones on the other side of the machine, where the rings that 'imprisoned' Latios were. Another set of rings began to appear on the floor, and with a heavy metallic click, the carving was finished. Now, the DMA had two eon dragon holding rings carved into the floor. The machine's overall shape remained similar, but it was still easy to appreciate the many changes that had been made to it. The machine looked more bulky now, and it seemed to radiate a feeling that it was now stronger and more benevolent.

Lorenzo gulped. "Uh… Latios?"

Latios looked at him. _"Yes?"_

"Don't get me wrong, the show of lights was amazing and gorgeous," Lorenzo began. "But this is bad. How the hell am I supposed to explain to everyone that the DMA suddenly changed the way it looks so drastically!?" He asked, rather upset and nervous at the barrage of questions it'd generate from pretty much everyone, and as the head of the museum's staff it'd be him who'd be on the receiving end of the questions.

Latios laughed softly. _"That's easy. Say that the change happened out of nowhere without any feasible explanation and attribute it to the Guardian Latios and Latias. That'll add a lot of mystery and wonder to the tale of the guardian eon dragons of Alto Mare,"_ he suggested, looking at the elderly human with an amused look.

Lorenzo blinked, thinking about that idea. "That's a good idea," he decided finally. "Really good, it'd only add to Alto Mare's glamour about Latias and Latios."

Latios nodded. _"Yes, indeed."_ He paused, looked at Lorenzo, and smiled. _"That reminds me,"_ he said. His eyes glowed as a small crystal sphere appeared in his claws. It looked like a miniature Soul Dew.

"What's that?" Lorenzo asked, curious.

"_I've put a small amount of my power in here, and with it you can control the numerous illusions hiding the Secret Garden,"_ Latios announced, holding out the small orb to Lorenzo. _"As long as it's intact, the illusions protecting the garden will remain in place. Shatter it, and all the illusions of the garden will disappear, leaving it open for everyone to see."_

Lorenzo's eyes widened. "Does that mean…" He began, but was unable to continue.

Latios nodded. _"Yes. I am giving you complete ownership of the Secret Garden of Alto Mare. My children have a new home, and that is with their parents. And with no Soul Dew anymore or danger to Alto Mare, there is no need to keep the Secret Garden a secret. I know you are the best to choose what to do with it. If you decide to keep it a secret, that's perfectly fine. If you decide to open it to the public in Alto Mare, that is also fine. The responsibility of the garden now belongs to you," _the eon dragon said telepathically, depositing the small glassy sphere in Lorenzo's hand.

"I… I don't know what to say Latios…" Lorenzo muttered in complete shock, eyes locked on the small orb in his hands.

"_You don't need to say anything. What will become of the Secret Garden is your decision. But, if you ultimately decide to share its beauty with the city, I ask that you make sure it remains as beautiful as it has always been,"_ Latios added, a small smile tainting his lips.

Lorenzo carefully deposited the orb in one of his pockets. "I'll leave it as it is for now as I need to think about what's best for it. I might eventually share it with the city, but that's a decision I'll make later. Thank you, Latios," He said, his tone still filled with awe and shock.

"_Well Lorenzo, it was nice talking with you. Once again, I thank you for the support you granted my children throughout their lives,"_ Latios said, slowly hovering away from the Museum and into Alto Mare's main plaza. Lorenzo walked beside him, thankful the dragon was levitating at a pace he could keep up with_. "I'll be leaving now."_

"Please take care of Bianca," Lorenzo reminded the large eon dragon. "Will we meet again?"

"_I will take care of her, don't worry,"_ Latios reassured him._ "And I am not sure about that, but I'm pretty certain you'll meet my children again."_

"Oh, wait. You never told me, who is your mate?" Lorenzo asked, curiously, realizing until now that he couldn't quite picture who the dragon's mate and mother of his children was. Another Latias?

Latios smiled fondly at the thought of his eternal partner, his soul mate and one true love. _"The most gorgeous, amazing, gentle, caring and beautiful sweetheart of a goddess there is," _he answered, his tone filled with admiration and love.

"That sounds rather cheesy," Lorenzo commented in amusement, holding back his chuckles as he did so. "Though romantic, that doesn't tell me who she is."

"_You felt her power. When you touched the light of the DMA, you felt it. It should tell you immediately who she is. You can figure it out,"_ Latios said, his telepathic tone of voice soft and with a rather testing air to it. _"Remember the touch of her power, it will tell you who she is."_

Lorenzo frowned, feeling rather confused as to why Latios didn't just tell him, but maybe it was a test of some sorts. He closed his eyes, thinking back as to how that power felt against him. His eyes shot open as he realized who she was, it was all so clear now. "Latios! She's…" Lorenzo paused, looking around as he realized Latios was no longer beside him. "Latios? Latios!? Where are you?"

"_Goodbye Lorenzo, it was a pleasure talking with you_," Latios' telepathic voice drifted hazily in his mind, almost compelling Lorenzo to look up, and so he did. High in the sky, a few hundred feet up, he saw Latios, hovering there calmly, idly centered along the position of the two pillars with the statues of Latias and Latios. Latios lifted his illusion hiding Lorenzo and the DMA's changes at that precise moment when no one would notice Lorenzo appearing out of nowhere, so as far as anyone could tell he'd been there all along.

Latios smiled, and took a small breath, and then released a very loud and powerful but very beautiful and melodic cry, immediately catching the attention of everyone who was in the city plaza, museum, and the nearing coastline and streets. They all looked up in wonder and shock at the Latios hovering above Alto Mare, the sighting and appearance immediately causing a huge impact on the city.

"Alto Mare's eternal guardian deity is here…" Lorenzo whispered softly, smiling at the beautiful tune in the Dragon's song. Immediately, many people took out cameras and mobile phones and took pictures and videos of the dragon. Latios kept the song of support for Alto Mare for a few more seconds, letting everyone enjoy the tune and the sighting and then stopped. He looked down at the city, smiled one last time, and turned invisible, disappearing completely from everyone's sight, and under the cover of his invisibility, he flew away.

"Lorenzo! Lorenzo!" One of the museum's staff members came running towards him, stopping in front of him. "Something happened to the DMA, you need to see this! Come quick!" he said before quickly running back towards the museum.

However, Lorenzo merely smiled and slowly walked towards the commotion. _'Thank you Latios…' _Lorenzo thought as he slowly made his way back to the DMA's chamber.

* * *

><p><strong>Author Notes:<strong> And this brings A New Chance for Adventure's Chapter 7 to a close! Also, I know the explanations here were vague, but the countdown has been set! _For Latios to meet his children!_ The entire story regarding the 'evil entity' and all about the creation of Alto Mare and Latios' mate (and the twin's mother) will be revealed at that meeting in **great** detail! In the meantime, enjoy the unanswered torturing questions! xD


	8. Bullies and Poachers

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.**

"Speech"

_'Thoughts'_

_"Telepathy" _

**Author Notes:** Chapter 8 is here! And with it, the start of the Petalburg Woods Arc =)

Just wanted to remind to all my readers that soon, starting a bit after some of the upcoming chapters, lots of changes to the storyline shown in the anime will be made, so don't be surprised. I plan _**huge **_changes to be made to the anime story as my own story progresses. Like I've said in previous installments, I don't want my Fanfic to be a simple copy of the anime just with two Latis added to it. I plan my Fanfic to eventually diverge _**far**_ from the anime and into something unique.

As always, I give a deep thank you for all my readers and reviewers for their time to read and review, and for their patience. All reviews are appreciated. I do my best to give you all Fanfics of the highest quality possible.

**Chapter 8 - Bullies And Poachers**

* * *

><p>After a long night of cozy sleep at the Petalburg City Pokémon Center, a rude awakening from his Pokémon because he slept in as usual, and passing by Norman's home to say their good-byes to the family, Ash and his friends headed out for their next Pokémon Gym challenge in Rustboro City, a very large urban metropolis that was just a short walk through a nearby forest from Petalburg. It was a warm afternoon at the moment, just several hours past midday.<p>

Bianca sighed softly, looking around and enjoying the surrounding area's green and beautiful scenery. "The Petalburg Woods are really beautiful. I love the view, it reminds me of the Secret Garden back at Alto Mare," she commented, voice tender and awed as she looked at the vast green woods and perfect blue sky. Being a natural artist, she was a great appreciator of things like this.

Latios nodded once, his posture very calm and relaxed. _"Yeah, kinda, though overall it's not quite as pretty as our garden,"_ he said, smiling down at her. He and Latias were visible since the group was alone along the route, but they were sharp and ready in case they needed to quickly cloak themselves.

Bianca glanced around, scanning her eyes across the lush and gorgeous forest that was spread all around them before turning her attention to Ash. "So is this what your travels usually consist of? Walking for days on end from city to city? That's kinda boring. I admit the forest is pretty, but this will definitely get dull after a couple of days."

Ash sweatdropped at Bianca's comment while slightly tripping on a loose rock in the road; thankfully he regained his footing quickly before he fell. "No Bianca, it's not just about lots of walking from place to place. There's lots of adventures and experiences along the way too. Some examples can be catching wild Pokémon, helping people, having all kinds of fun and meeting new friends. There's a lot more than just plain walking," he answered, feeling slightly offended.

Latios nodded in response to his trainer's comment. _"And, also, walking from city to city isn't that boring. There's lots of awesome stuff everywhere, and seeing all kinds of places can be fun. I've greatly enjoyed it, it was a nice change from living all the time in Alto Mare,"_ he said, smiling softly and brushing his claw on Bianca's shoulder. The artist giggled softly and rubbed the dragon's long slender neck with her hand tenderly, scratching at the tiny feathers.

"_You two forgot to add 'dealing with Team Rocket on an annoyingly daily basis' to that list of things we do while traveling," _Latias added drily. _"Seriously, is there anything we can do to get them off our backs for good?" _

Ash sighed sadly, thinking back to all the incidents he's had involving Team Rocket, and scowled at the memories. "Not that I know of. I've dealt with them for two years… I really wonder sometimes if they are as annoyed with me as I am with them."

"Doubt it," Pikachu deadpanned, sitting on Ash's shoulder like he always did. "They'll never give up until they capture us, which I doubt will ever happen."

"_I can get them off our backs for good very easily,"_ Latios offered with a slightly sinister tone in his voice and a dark grin on his features.

Ash yelped in horror. "No! Don't do anything like that!" he yelled frantically. Latios rolled his eyes as he abandoned all the deliciously dark ideas that were crossing his mind.

Bianca frowned softly, looking down at her legs. They'd been walking for a couple of hours and she could already start feeling the exhaustion in them. "I really hope I get used to all this walking soon."

"You'll get used to it, don't worry Bianca," Ash told her, trying to cheer his traveling companion up. "I also had problems at first, but I've gotten used to it over time."

Bianca breathed softly before she felt her stomach rumble slightly. "I'm rather hungry. It's been a while since the breakfast at the Pokémon Center," she said. "Walking so much really works up an appetite."

Latios nodded in agreement to her comment. _"Yeah," _he said in approval_. "Even if I don't walk, I'm starting to feel hungry myself_." He looked up at the sun, gauging the time. _"It's probably around four in the afternoon, so I suppose it's a nice time for a meal."_

Bianca turned to look at Ash. "So, let's find a nice spot in the woods and have our lunch. You have it with you, right?" She questioned the young Pokémon trainer.

Ash paused and blinked as if he had no clue of what she was talking about. "Wait, what?" he asked, feeling rather confused at why the statement had been directed at him to begin with.

Latias sighed in dismay. Ash's confusion could only mean one thing that she really hoped wasn't the case. _"Our food, you are supposed to have it," _she reminded him telepathically.

Ash blinked blankly at her. "I don't have any food on me," he said, rather nervous as to why the entire group was looking at him.

Latias frowned at the dreadful reality that was very true after all. _"Ash, it was your responsibility to make sure we had enough food supplies for the trip through Petalburg Woods," _she stated, her telepathic voice firm.

"What!? Why me?" the black-haired boy asked brusquely, feeling completely dumbfounded as to why the guilt was directed at him. "It's Brock that's always done that."

Latias nodded in agreement at his last comment, but she was still visibly upset_. "Yes, and Brock isn't here, so that means the responsibility immediately shifts to you, Ash."_

Ash gulped as his heart raced in nervousness. "Me?" he asked quietly.

Bianca glared at Ash with a very annoyed expression. "Yes, you. I only started traveling with you since Alto Mare. You are the professional at traveling, so you are the one that's supposed to keep everything well organized. I'm only starting out."

Latios looked at Ash, locking his bright red eyes with him. _"And Ash, as our trainer and the experienced traveler of the group, it is your responsibility to make sure that the group as a whole is safe and the trip is correctly planned, and that we, your Pokémon, are kept well fed and in a perfect state of health. Yes, I know Brock did you the favor of handling all that for you, but if he's not here it is your responsibility, so the guilty one here is you,"_ the large eon dragon reprimanded his trainer.

"Indeed, now how are we going to get through Petalburg Woods without a single bit of food? Ash, this means the traveling skills you have are poor," Bianca scolded him, putting her arms on her hips. "Just because you've had people help you organize your travels in the past doesn't mean you always will, you need to learn it on your own!"

Ash looked down, feeling very ashamed and not knowing what to say to them, since he knew they were right. "I…" Ash's stomach rumbled noisily, expressing how hungry he himself was and only further embarrassing him about the current situation.

Pikachu frowned. "Ash, I'm with them on this. I really thought you could handle the role of the leader when traveling. We may guide you a lot, but ultimately we are your Pokémon and your responsibility."

Ash winced. "But… It was Brock who always did it. I was so used to him always handling everything that I kinda forgot about it…" He said weakly, trying to find a way to lower the mess he was in.

"_Yes, he was, but the absence of Brock is no excuse for you to not think about it,"_ Latias said, voice uncharacteristically harsh, which expressed how annoyed she was. _"This is your third year traveling Ash, and the mistake of forgetting to have provisions for the trip is a rather rookie one."_

"I'm sorry," Ash said apologetically, acknowledging the obvious mistake he had made. In the past, he had always relied on Brock to take care of the basic necessities during his travels. Factors such as food, medicine, guidance, health, traveling plans, were all left to Brock's responsibility while he took care of battling and training himself. Without him, Ash realized traveling was not as easy as he thought. So far, he had been lucky that all the routes had been through were short ones with enough Pokémon Centers along the way to keep the group fed, but now on a long route that'd last for days of traveling, he realized he had messed up.

Latios sighed. _"I guess we'll let it slip this time, but Ash, I expect you to not make this kind of mistake again. You are a great Pokémon trainer, I'm sure you can handle all aspects of traveling on your own."_

Pikachu smiled. "You're a young man in the making Ash, add this to your experiences, and I'm sure one day you'll not only be a great and powerful trainer, but a mature guy who can handle all the difficulties of traveling. But at least try to learn from your mistakes, alright?" the electric type said gently to his best friend.

"Alright… I really messed up this time," Ash said, nodding slowly. "I promise this won't happen again, okay?"

Bianca frowned. "Sadly, that's not gonna solve our food problem right now. We are all still hungry."

Latios looked around, surveying the area. _"Well, I guess me and Latias could look for berries and fruit for us to eat," _he suggested as an alternative to handle the situation at hand._ "It's a big forest, there has to be plenty of food around here."_

"Well, let's find a clearing to rest in," Ash suggested, walking down the road and into the woods. The group followed him, agreeing on that. Soon enough, after walking for another five or so minutes, the group arrived at a relatively nice and open clearing in the woods, with a few rocks here and there as well as pretty colorful flower patches. A soft breeze blew by, letting the group feel the fresh scent of nature that circulated around the pretty clearing.

Pikachu smiled at the scent and the sight. "This will do."

Ash nodded, sitting on a rather large rock. "Yeah."

Latias glanced around as she examined the clearing and noticed that none of the trees within her field of vision had any berries or fruit available on them. _"Well, finding some fruit might not be that easy, but I'm sure we can manage somehow. This clearing is good; I think there's water nearby since I can hear and smell it. There's a creek, maybe a small river."_ She pointed down towards the direction where she knew there was water. _"That way," _she informed them in case any of them felt thirsty.

Pikachu chuckled. "You two are psychics and you can't find some fruit?" he asked with a slightly teasing tone to his voice.

"Pikachu, we have psychic powers, not some kind of fruit sensing ability," Latios said exasperatedly. "We only have sight and scent on this one."

Pikachu laughed. "Alright, alright. You win. Just hurry up, I'm hungry," he said, rubbing his stomach. Ash nodded, feeling as if he was a caged Snorlax ready to eat a buffet.

Latias rolled her eyes, sighed, and then turned to look at Ash. "I hope you learned your lesson, Ash," she reminded him, hoping that this mistake wouldn't repeat itself. "You need to prepare and organize for your travels better. Food and health items, which I'm pretty sure you don't have either, are among the most important provisions you have to keep at hand."

Ash nodded. "I will, and this won't happen again," he said sincerely.

Latios smirked. "Good, because next time this happens I'll have to eat Pikachu for dinner," he answered, grinning while pulling back his lips slightly, making sure to show his sharp-looking and rather vicious draconic teeth. Pikachu and Ash glanced at him in horror, which earned a loud raucous laugh from the large eon dragon. "Be back in ten minutes while we collect fruits and berries of all kinds." Upon concluding his statement, both he and Latias darted off.

Pikachu shuddered. "I'll electrocute him if he actually tries something like that."

Ash blinked. "If he's willing to eat you…has he ever actually eaten another Pokémon?" They exchanged horrified looks at this thought.

"Finally, a chance to catch some rest," Bianca said in relief, but then she sighed in aggravation due to her dry throat. Damn traveling. "Sadly, I'm thirsty. I'll go by the creek Latias mentioned. And you, Ash?" she asked, gazing at the young trainer.

Ash shook his head. "Nah, I'll wait here for Latias and Latios. I'll also let my Pokémon out of their Pokéballs to get some fresh air."

Bianca nodded. "Okay." She stood up, her bag still with her, and slowly walked in the direction Latias mentioned. Ash sat on the rock, grabbed three Pokéballs, and released Larvitar, Phanpy, and Pidgeot. After exchanging greetings, the two kids started playing along with Pikachu while Pidgeot watched over them protectively from a high branch she was comfortably roosting on.

…

After several minutes of walking through the woods alone, Bianca reached the promised creek. The sight of the river made her smile; it was a crystal clear stream that trailed across the woods. Patches of flowers and bushes ran along at its banks, with very tall trees flanking it. "Gorgeous," she expressed breathlessly. After walking to the edge of the river and kneeling down, she reached up and took off her white beret and placed it in the soft grass beside her. She cupped her hands together and took some of the water, drinking it and quenching her thirst. "Mmm," she hummed softly at the fresh natural taste.

She took a few more handfuls of water, and then reached down for a final one, which she used to slightly wash her face to refresh herself from the hot day. Bianca grabbed her beret and bag and turned around to walk back towards Ash. She frowned and looked back at the scene behind her. "It'd be perfect for a quick sketch," she noted to herself.

She walked to a tree facing the stream and sat down with her legs crossed and her back leaned against the tree's bark. She took out her sketchbook and a drawing pencil, and then looked up at the scene of the gorgeous creek running across the trees and bushes. After analyzing it carefully, she began to draw.

The minutes continued to drift by as Bianca continued her sketch, enjoying the fresh scent of the natural wonder and peace that surrounded her, the perfect environment for an artist with an active muse for drawing. The gentle sounds of nature echoed around her as she kept drawing. With soft yet rapid pencil swipes, the scene before her came to life with well-practiced precision.

She was so absorbed into her drawing that she didn't notice a small rustle in the bushes nearby. Slowly, the head of a Pokémon poked out of it. The Pokémon looked around in an almost reluctant and frightful matter, and after seeing that Bianca didn't quite seem like a possible threat, it came out and walked towards the water in the stream.

Bianca looked up from her sketchpad to take another glance at the scene and use it for further reference, and noticed the small Pokémon. She blinked, studying the visitor. It wasn't exactly a big Pokémon, perhaps twice the size of Pikachu. It was a bipedal beagle-like brown and white Pokémon with a noticeably long tail that seemed to end… in a paintbrush? Huh. It also had a green substance that seemed to resemble paint oozing from it. The Pokémon's head was rounded, looking almost like a beret with a pointy end, and had two floppy brown ears to each side. The Pokémon had brown rings encircling its eyes, a brown circle around the neck like a collar, and its arms and legs were also adorned with a few brown rings. Its hands looked a bit more complex, with three fingered hands that seemed more dexterous than paws, presumably for better handling the paintbrush tail, and its feet were regular paws. Bianca hummed slightly as she looked at the Pokémon that was currently taking small sips of water from the stream. She could swear she'd seen those before. "Oh, right! A Smeargle, they're very cute," she remarked with a soft smile.

The Smeargle finished drinking water, and looked towards Bianca, blinking softly. The Normal-type slowly walked towards her, eyes very curious. "Hello?" the Smeargle said in a feminine-sounding tone, identifying her as a female.

Bianca, however, couldn't understand what the Pokémon was saying nor discern the gender behind the tone. "Without the twins or Ash, Pokémon interactions certainly aren't fun at all," she lamented with a saddened frown. "Sorry little one, I can't understand you."

Smeargle pouted, but she still approached the human inquisitively. She seemed nice and not at all dangerous. Bianca blinked, eyeing the Pokémon curiously as she slowly approached her. Smeargle stopped a couple of feet away from the young brunette artist. She leaned forward and sniffed, checking Bianca's scent to see if there was anything odd about her.

Bianca smiled, eyeing the curious Pokémon with a smile. Smeargle walked closer, inspecting her. She looked at Bianca's sketchbook with interest. "What? Want to see it?" Bianca said, turning the sketchbook to the side to allow the Painter Pokémon to have a look. The Smeargle cooed softly, her eyes shining in delight at Bianca's drawing. Smeargle as a species had always been identified as Pokémon who enjoyed expressing themselves through various forms of art and were great appreciators of it.

Bianca giggled softly at the Smeargle's expression. "Pretty good, isn't it?" She asked. The Smeargle nodded immediately in response, letting out a series of cute squeals. Bianca smiled warmly at the Pokémon's positive reaction. "I think that's a yes, thank you." She extended her arm and softly petted the Painter Pokémon, running her hand down her face and then scratching her chin. The Smeargle let out a soft noise of appreciation.

As she paid attention to the Pokémon a very familiar presence filled her mind. _"Hey Bianca, we got enough fruit, we'll be heading back to the group now,"_ Latios' voice rung in her head. Bianca smiled and nodded, and then looked at her drawing while comparing it to the landscape it was based on. Seeing she had enough of it done to continue later on her own, she decided it was time to get back to Ash.

"Sorry little one, I've got to go," Bianca said towards the Smeargle, who frowned upon hearing the human girl's words. "First I'll get some more water, though." She stood up and put all her drawing stuff into her bag, and then took out a canteen from another pouch. She walked to the stream and took another drink of water, and then proceeded to fill her canteen.

Smeargle watched quietly, looking at the young artist, her mind completely enveloped in the gorgeous drawing Bianca was doing. Smeargle could easily see the girl before her had a real artistic talent, and it greatly interested her. Her ears twitched, and her eyes widened in fear. She heard the distinct sound of flapping, and in this part of the woods, that was _bad_ news. "Hurry! We gotta go!" Smeargle called out, running towards Bianca and pulling on her legs as the human girl put her now-full canteen back in her bag. "Hurry!" the Smeargle yelled, tugging at Bianca's legs harder.

Bianca frowned at the sudden anxiety displayed by the wild Smeargle. "What's wrong little one? I can't understand you," she said sadly. Ash's Pokéspeech gift was very useful and an indispensable asset. She felt an idle pang of envy at it.

Smeargle sighed, knowing that the warnings were of no use when her new friend couldn't understand what she was trying to convey. "Stupid humans and their language barrier," she mumbled in desperation, not that Bianca would understand her.

"Get away from our water!" a voice screeched, and Smeargle yelped in fear. Bianca turned when she heard an angry chirp, and squeaked and barely managed to leap to the side in time to dodge a blue blur that had been gliding towards her.

"What was that!?" Bianca asked, rather frightened by the sudden attack.

Smeargle shivered. "Those would be the local bullies, a dammed flock of stupid Taillow," she answered sadly, her tone clearly expressing how much she hated them. She tugged on Bianca's leg again, wanting to get the human to safety. This time, Bianca didn't ask anything and followed the Smeargle without any objection, but before they could make it away from the creek, a pair of avian Pokémon blocked their path. Behind them, another two of the birds blocked their access to the creek.

"This is our water and only ours!" one of the birds shrieked. Bianca blinked, only hearing angry chirps and having no idea what it was saying to her.

"Uh," Bianca stuttered uneasily, having no idea what was going on. The birds were small Pokémon with dark blue feathers on their tails, upper body, and upper wings as well as their heads. They had red patches of feathers on their lower neck and their faces, going up to the forehead with a small triangular tip. The birds' chests were mostly white as well as the underside of their wings, which had elongated tips for superior speed and maneuverability. Their tail feathers were long and looked almost like a pointy blade, and their beaks were yellow, short and flat. Their black feet had yellow talons. She recognized them as Taillow.

Smeargle frowned as she backed up slightly. "Okay okay, we're leaving now," she spoke levelheadedly, trying to reason with them. "It's your water, we are leaving now."

"Not this time!" the other Taillow in front of them demanded. "You drank from our water, and we'll make you pay for it!" The Tiny Swallow Pokémon reared back and charged at Bianca, wings glowing slightly from a Wing Attack.

"Leave her alone!" Smeargle yelled at them, opening her mouth and firing a long beam made up of golden sparkling stars of energy as she used Swift. The super-accurate star-like projectiles smashed into the Taillow and the one behind it, interrupting its attack and making both of them back off slightly.

"Hey!" one of the other Taillow behind them yelled. The Painter Pokémon quickly turned around, her arms glowing white as a sphere of super-pressurized water formed between them. She hurled the bright blue glowing sphere of water at them. It smashed harshly into the Taillow that had spoken up, crashing him into a tree with a blast of water. The other Taillow chirped angrily and rushed at her, far too fast for the Painter Pokémon to charge up another attack. The Taillow used Peck, pecking away at her chest and making her let out a cry of pain, and then it pecked at her arm, drawing out blood as a moderately-sized wound was inflicted.

Smeargle growled and quickly spat a Swift attack right in the Taillow's face in retaliation for the injury she had sustained, causing it to shriek in pain and be flung backwards as the pretty, shining golden sparkly stars exploded in its face.

Bianca sighed in relief as she saw all four Pokémon fall back from the attacks, looking down at the Smeargle in admiration. "Thanks a lot. Are you okay?" she asked, concerned as she saw the wound on the chest and arm of the Normal-type. Smeargle nodded and cooed at the artist, she could take worse. The Pokémon's tail coiled around Bianca's exposed leg and tugged, once again beckoning her to leave the area. Bianca nodded and followed her new friend.

"We're not done yet!" one of the four Taillow yelled as all of them suddenly blocked their path. "We said we'd make you pay for trespassing into our territory, and that's what we're going to do!" All four reared back, preparing to attack them with a strong and simultaneous Peck Attack.

Bianca gulped as the birds prepared their strike. "Think you can repel all four of them?" she asked, clearly frightened. Smeargle blinked and quickly looked between her opponents. She could stop two of them, but not all four at the same time. The Pokémon knew she would lose quickly.

"Bianca!" an instantly recognizable voice yelled. She whirled around, deeply surprised at the intrusion. "Brock! What are you doing here!?" She asked, very shocked and forgetting for a second that she was about to be attacked by four Taillow.

Brock came out of the vegetation that was parallel to the creek, and quickly grabbed a Fast Ball. "Forretress, use Pin Missile!" He shouted as he hurled the Fast Ball forward.

With a bright flash of light, the Bug and Steel-type Pokémon was released from the Fast Ball. It gave a battle cry as the four stubs coming out of its shell began to glow. Forretress span around so fast on its axis that all physical details of it was lost in nothing but a silver spinning blur. The super-fast spinning continued for a second until suddenly, a series of long beams of energy were shot towards the four Taillow.

The four avian Pokémon cried out in pain as they were bombarded by the powerful beams of energy. Despite the Type-resistance to them, the attack was still painful, especially whenever one of the projectiles struck their frail wings.

Smeargle took the chance that the four were distracted and held in place by the newcomer's move to launch an attack of her own. Inhaling a deep breath, she quickly spat a spiraling stream of fire, enveloping the four Taillow in a tornado of flames, making their shrieks of pain become louder as they were scorched by the attack.

When her Fire Spin attack died down, four very singed and beaten-up Taillow flew away over the canopy as fast as their weakened wings could take them. Smeargle smiled softly, feeling very glad to have taught those bullies a lesson at last. She just hoped they didn't return with reinforcements, as those four were only a small part of a bigger flock.

Brock grinned as he approached Bianca. "Are you okay?" He asked her, feeling concerned for his friend.

"Yeah, I am," Bianca answered, sighing softly and glad that the danger was over.

Brock looked down at the Smeargle. "You've got a new Pokémon, it seems? Woah, I didn't take you to be the Pokémon trainer type," he commented in amusement, but then frowned when he noticed the Smeargle's arm and chest wounds.

Bianca shook her head. "Oh no, it's not my Pokémon, it's a wild Pokémon."

Smeargle glared at Bianca in annoyance and let out an angry bark. Bianca blushed. "Uh, you're a boy?" she asked. Smeargle responded with several sideways shakes of her head. Bianca's eyes lit up. "Oh, you're a girl." Smeargle nodded. "She used quite nice attacks, how did she learn them? She used a fire and water attack."

"Well, Smeargle are said to be able to learn pretty much any Pokémon attack there is," Brock answered, and then chuckled softly. "So, what are you doing here all alone? Where are Latias and Latios? I really didn't know you were the traveling type of person. I thought you had a fixed home with Lorenzo at Alto Mare."

"Well, when Ash visited Alto Mare before coming to Hoenn I decided I wanted to travel with him. That's what I'm doing here in Hoenn. As for why I'm alone, I came here to get some water," Bianca answered. "But I got kinda distracted drawing something, and then those Taillow got very angry at me for some reason. Smeargle helped me out, but we'd have been in big trouble if you hadn't arrived. Now, the real question, Brock, is what are _you_ doing here? I thought you stopped traveling with Ash."

"I never really stopped traveling with Ash. You could say I went to do some errands," Brock said, his tone soft and relived to have found his friends again. "So you'll be our new traveling companion? That's nice," he said kindly, though, he wasn't entirely sure if Bianca could truly replace Misty in their traveling group, as the Cerulean City Gym Leader had been with them throughout their adventures in Kanto and Johto. At the very least, he was sure that Bianca would be a great friend.

"Yes, I will," Bianca answered. "I figured some traveling would be nice to expand my artistic talents beyond what there was available in Alto Mare, which was the main motivator to start traveling. Also, I wanted to be able to spend more time with Latias and Latios. What about you, Brock? The last time we met was back at the Silver Conference, and when I reunited with Ash at Alto Mare you weren't with him."

Before Brock could answer, Latios suddenly burst out through the bushes and trees_. "Bianca! Are you okay?"_ he asked in concern as he looked at her. Smeargle yipped in fright and surprise at the Legendary's sudden appearance, but no one really noticed. She then eyed Latios with amazement and admiration.

Bianca giggled softly. "For someone so fast, you really have trouble showing up in time to save people. Really, Ash told me you were late saving him once from Fearow, and now you're late saving me from those Taillow."

Latios blushed in embarrassment. _"I really need to practice that before something bad happens," _he mumbled mentally. He turned to look at Brock, blinking in surprise. _"Brock?"_

"The one and only," Brock answered, smiling as he walked forward and petted the large blue eon dragon. "It's good to see you again, Latios."

Latios nodded, smiling and glad to see the dark-skinned, squinty-eyed trainer again._ "Likewise," _he responded telepathically.

Brock turned to Bianca. "To answer your question, like I said, no, I didn't stop traveling with Ash. You see, we parted ways in Kanto, but I only had to check up on the Pewter City Gym for a week or so. If all was in perfect order, I could return to traveling…which thankfully happened, so I'm here," he answered, and then smiled. "Ash would be lost without me."

Latios smiled and decided to inform Brock of their current dilemma. _"You have no idea. The reason we're separated is because Ash forgot to stock up on provisions and we were improvising a bunch of fruit as today's meal."_

Brock sweatdropped when he heard that. For some reason it was so… easy to believe. "So, Ash messed up on the first day of the first long route he was to travel on his own? Wow, that's really sad."

Latios nodded with a not very amused expression. _"Yeah, which is why it's great to know you're back."_

Bianca frowned. "I'm really hungry, let's get back to the group," she said, interrupting the two.

Brock nodded. "I'll cook something. Ash will love the idea, I've got a bunch of ideas of what to do with forest fruit," he said, making Bianca smile. He crouched down and examined the Smeargle. "Would you like to come too? There's food for you too, and those wounds could use some treating."

Smeargle frowned, pondering what to do for now. She looked at Bianca, then at Brock. She admitted she was hungry, and helping treat her wounds would be nice. Plus, if the bunch of bully Taillow returned, the Latios would beat them up. Smeargle nodded. "Yes, its fine," she said to them.

Brock nodded. "Well, lead the way, Bianca." Bianca began to walk back in the direction of the clearing. Brock, Latios and Smeargle followed her.

After a bit of walking, they reached the clearing. Ash was sitting, just watching Pikachu, Phanpy and Larvitar play around. Pidgeot was roosted underneath the shade of a tree, her eyes closed softly. Latias was talking with Ash while a large bunch of fruits and berries of many kinds was levitating behind her, held in her psychic grip.

Brock smiled as they entered the clearing. "Hello Ash!" He greeted loudly.

Ash immediately leaped up from his seat and whirled around, making the ex-Gym Leader chuckle slightly at his overreaction. "Brock!?" he yelled out in pure surprise.

"Yes, it's me!" Brock said, walking up to Ash and holding out his right hand.

Ash shook it in greeting while laughing softly. "It's so great to see you again!" the boy exclaimed with tremendous excitement. Ash noted that Brock had, just like him, gotten a new set of clothes. Brock now wore a dark brown jacket with an orange collar and a green undershirt. He also wore grey cargo pants and dark blue shoes. His backpack was blue as well, and it looked a bit larger than the last one he had.

Brock nodded, warmed up by Ash's happy demeanor. He missed having the bright and energetic boy around. "You too," he said. He turned to Latias and nodded at her as well. "Good to you see you again, Latias."

Latias smiled. _"It's good to see you too, Brock,"_ she said kindly.

Brock heard a chirp behind him. He turned around and his smile broadened when he saw who was greeting him. "Whoa! Pidgeot! Oh my, look how much you've grown!" He gushed admiringly, eyeing the avian that was now clearly taller than him. She definitely had grown a lot during her time alone. The Pokémon Breeder in the making smiled, excited. "You're a terrific girl now. It's great to see Ash finally got you back," Brock commented as he extended his hand, rubbing down Pidgeot's neck to her chest and then grabbing a hold of her wing. "Wow, you're really well built and strong. Did you train a lot?" He asked curiously, admiring the Bird Pokémon's clear strength. Pidgeot nodded once silently. "That explains it… just looking at you shows how powerful you are. You're impressive. It's great to see you again after over a year."

Pidgeot nodded, chirping softly a few times. Latias took the cue to relay her message to Brock. _"She says you're welcome, and that she's glad to see you too,"_ the dragoness translated.

"It's great to see that everyone's okay," Brock said, looking at Phanpy, Larvitar and Pikachu and petting each of them. They happily greeted him back. Brock smiled and set his backpack down, opening it and going through the items that were inside. After looking around it for a few minutes, he pulled out a cloth and a spray potion. "Well Ash, I heard you didn't bring any provisions with you," Brock said as he crouched down beside Smeargle and started cleaning her wounds with the cloth in preparation of applying the medicinal spray.

Ash winced. "Yeah, I didn't…" He said sadly, not wanting to hear another scolding about that.

"I thought you knew better and learned something from me from the two years we spent traveling together, Ash," Brock said, frowning. "Traveling as a trainer is a lot more than just battling and getting powerful Pokémon. It's also about knowing how to manage and grow as a person in all senses to successfully travel safely."

Ash looked down, ashamed. "I'll be more watchful next time," he mumbled.

Brock nodded. "You better. I'll help you through Hoenn, but try to learn how to fulfill all aspects of traveling. I'm a Gym Leader, I was lucky I'm free for another year. We might not be so lucky next time."

Ash nodded. "I'll appreciate your effort and try to learn, I promise," he said sincerely. "So, how was the Gym?"

"The Gym's fine. The Pokémon league was inspecting it and I had to help my replacement, my younger sibling Forrest. We managed to get accredited for another year as an official Kanto Gym. After that, I left all my Pokémon except my Forretress with Forrest so he could use them against challengers and provide the required challenge of a Kanto League Gym," Brock explained. "And everyone's been fine, which was nice to hear, so I'm free to travel and learn more about Pokémon breeding."

Ash nodded. "That's great, Brock!" he beamed cheerily at the great news his friend had. "So, we're back to a group of three traveling partners it seems," he said, looking at Brock and then at Bianca. Ash frowned. "How did you find us, Brock? Hoenn's pretty big and so are these woods."

Brock chuckled before responding to Ash's question. "Finding you wasn't that hard. I arrived at Little Root Town and then just headed to Professor Birch's lab and asked him about you. He told me you were with him just a couple of days ago and where you were headed. Then I went to Petalburg City and passed by the… destroyed… Gym, where they told me about you," he explained. "As for finding you in the woods, that was pretty easy as well." He took out a map and pointed at it, being careful not to interrupt his treatment of Smeargle's wounds. "There's only a couple of rivers in the woods, and I knew that if I followed them I'd run into you sooner or later because everyone needs water. True to that, I ran into Bianca by one of the rivers. Rivers are often used as guides or landmarks to find one's way, or as general camping spots."

Bianca nodded. "That was very smart. See Ash, he really sounds like a traveler with years of experience," the artistic girl teased, winking at Ash. The latter just winced.

"There, all done," Brock said, standing up and letting Smeargle examine her wounds. The Painter Pokémon sniffed at them and looked closely. They seemed fine and already they were starting to feel better. She nodded in appreciation at Brock's kindheartedness.

Ash crouched down so he was closer to the Normal-type. "Well, who's your new friend, Bianca?" He smiled down at the Smeargle. "Hello there."

Smeargle blinked. "Uh, hello?" she asked uncertainly, not sure how to address the stranger.

Bianca looked at the Painter Pokémon with a soft expression. "She's a nice Smeargle who I just met, she helped me when I was in trouble," she answered, and then she brightened up considerably. "Oh, right! Now I can talk to her!"

Latias glanced at her. _"I'll translate anything you need Bianca,"_ she offered kindly.

Brock hummed as he examined the pile of fruit and berries Latias and Latios had gathered, thinking out what kinds of stews or meals he could prepare with them. "Well, a very good question to ask is what she's doing here, Smeargle are mostly native to Johto. They are _very _rare outside of that region," he suggested.

Bianca nodded. "That's a good place to start. Care to tell us a bit about yourself?" she asked the Smeargle nicely. Smeargle shrugged and started letting out a long series of vocalizations of her name, coupled with a few yips and barks. The girl from Alto Mare frowned, remembering their language barrier problem. She was thankful Latias would translate that, but that didn't take away the jealousy she felt at Ash's gift of understanding Pokéspeech. "Let me guess Ash, you understood all of that?" she asked, just to check.

Ash grinned. "Yep," he answered.

"It's times like this I really envy your Pokémon talking ability," Bianca mused out loud, but in a good-natured way.

Latias giggled softly at their comments, and then proceeded to translate Smeargle's speech to Bianca and Brock. _"She says that she was captured in Johto, and was taken to a Pokémon Academy called the Pokémon Trainer's School. It's located in the city that we're heading toward. After a long series of disobedient behavior because she didn't like being there, she was finally released into the wild a few weeks ago, right here in Petalburg woods,"_ Latias translated.

"Oh, that explains why there's a rare Smeargle here in these woods," Brock commented, nodding slightly. Smeargle tilted her head, wondering when her speech had been translated, but she realized there were two Legendary Pokémon psychics with the group and figured they had something to do with it.

"And why were you so disobedient at the Academy?" Bianca asked. Smeargle let out another series of vocalizations of her name as she answered the question.

"_She says that she was so misbehaved because she's a lover of art and peace and she doesn't really enjoy fighting. In the Pokémon Trainer's School, all she did was constantly put up with annoying human children who got on her nerves, and was always required to battle for young trainer's practices. She never had a chance to practice the art she loved, or at the very least be in peace, so that's why she was disobedient, she was miserable with the environment and wanted her caretakers to see that through her rebellious acts,"_ Latias translated, frowning sadly for the Normal-type's story. It was rather gloomy.

Bianca sighed, saddened. "Aw, you poor little girl," she lamented. "So, your being an artist yourself is why my drawing interested you?" She asked with a kind smile. Smeargle nodded excitedly. Latias smiled. The two were getting along well, and her empathy only further confirmed it.

"Well, she can stay and eat with us," Ash said kindly. "She'll appreciate it."

Bianca giggled. "Brock already offered her food Ash, you're a little late."

Ash pouted. "Awww."

Brock shook his head in amusement. "Food will be ready in fifteen or so minutes, I'll make cocktails with what Latias and Latios brought from their gatherings and a small stew to go along with it. The cocktails will save me some of my food supplies."

Ash beamed. "That's great! I'm very hungry." He patted his stomach, eagerly awaiting the meal.

Pikachu's ear twitched as his very sensitive hearing caught a distant sound. "I hear something," he announced.

Smeargle's eyes widened, recognizing the sound as soon as she heard it. "Uh-oh…"

Pidgeot, who had returned to roosting in the shade of a tree after Brock greeted her, slowly opened her eyes and hummed. She knew that sound very well. "Flapping… and it's a large flock from the sound of it," she said, looking up. "And judging by the franticness of it, they are moving in aggressively."

Ash frowned. "A big flock? What about it?" he asked, slightly confused.

Bianca gulped, knowing that her earlier encounter with the four Taillow most likely had something to do with it. "Ash! I was attacked by four Taillow… maybe they…"

"Brought some friends over," Brock finished, not liking the sound of that. "And they might want to get payback for us beating them up."

Latios snorted, seeing a bunch of Taillow as a very meager threat. "They're small Taillow. I can beat a whole flock of them," he boasted confidently.

Pikachu slapped him slightly on the neck with his thunderbolt-shaped tail. "I could beat a flock _faster_. I'm an Electric-type."

Pidgeot stood up, slowly walking towards Smeargle, her talons clicking softly against the grass with every step she took. The large avian stopped a few feet away from the Painter Pokémon. Smeargle couldn't help but feel small and intimidated when she looked up at Pidgeot. The bully Taillow terrified her, and they clearly smaller than her, but the Flying-type in front of her was _huge_ in comparison. Even so, something about the much larger Pidgeot made her… feel kind of safe. "Yes?" Smeargle asked uneasily, shaking a bit.

"Could you tell me a bit about this flock please? Flocks cover large territories. I should know, I was once a flock leader myself, and having resided in the woods for weeks, you're bound to have crossed paths with them more than once," Pidgeot said, keeping her voice kind and gentle, so as not to further frighten the Smeargle who clearly looked upset at the sound of the oncoming flapping.

Smeargle sighed. "There's a lot to tell about them," she started, her voice scared and sad. "They're the local forest bullies. _Everyone_ in the forest hates them. They claim all the food and resources as theirs and brutally attack anyone who dares touch them. For example, the reason they attacked your human friend was because she drank some water from the creek nearby, which they consider theirs, and they get really angry when someone drinks from their river," she explained.

Pidgeot frowned at her explanation. "That's terrible."

Pikachu looked at Smeargle sadly. "There's bound to be lots of Pokémon in the forest, a lot more than Taillow. Why don't you fight back?" He asked.

Smeargle shook her head. "Most Pokémon of the forest are too terrified of them to do a thing, and most are either Grass or Bug types, with the occasional Normal-type. They are at too much of a disadvantage to fight a well organized flock of bullies," she answered, voice dark and low in sadness and disappointment. She looked at Pidgeot. "You said you were a flock leader. Did your flock act like that too?"

Pidgeot shook her head. "My flock was never anything like that. It was created after I exiled a flock that sounds pretty similar to the one here. Under my reign, I always made my flock keep a very friendly and tight bond with all the Viridian Forest Pokémon, because it is always useful to have many allies outside the flock," she answered, her tone gentle. "My flock was well loved across Viridian forest, and everyone always turned to us for help. I always taught my underlings to follow a moral compass like my own, and made sure everyone stuck to it."

"I'd love to have someone like you here," Smeargle commented, her early intimidation of Pidgeot disappearing completely. The Flying and Normal-type was very kind and friendly. "Sadly, we don't."

"I can say their leader is very short-sighted and certainly a terrible one for pushing for a behavior like that out of his flock," Pidgeot said, turning to look at the incoming mass of Flying Pokémon. "For their good and the good of everyone in the forest like you, I'll teach them a lesson they won't ever forget."

Smeargle frowned, alarmed at the giant bird's claim. "But there's dozens of them! You're…just one. You can't beat them all!"

Pikachu smiled. "Don't worry, Smeargle. She beat a flock leader before, and the entire enemy flock was too terrified of her to try to attack her, and over time she managed to keep beating that entire flock all by herself," he said, not doubting his friend's power in the least, especially _not_ after seeing her mop the floor with Norman's Vigoroth and Slaking the day before.

Smeargle blinked, looking up at Pidgeot with surprise. The Flying and Normal-type winked at the Painter Pokémon. "Don't worry, I can handle myself. A bunch of Taillow bullies won't beat me anytime soon."

Latios smiled. "Pidgeot's powerful. And in case she needs help, we're here," he said, not very worried about having to fight, and feeling confident Pidgeot could handle the skirmish on her own. Smeargle sighed and nodded.

"Be careful Pidgeot," Ash told the great bird. She nodded back at him. "They're here…" the boy muttered, looking at the large amount of flying-types that had surrounded the group in seconds, but he didn't really feel intimidated. He knew Latias and Latios could beat them if needed, and on top of that, he had faith in his beloved Pidgeot. Ash looked at the flock surrounding then, recognizing only two different kinds of Pokémon. Small ones made up nearly all of the flock, with only a few, maybe six or seven, much bigger ones.

Ash took out his Pokédex and pointed it at the smaller birds. The little red machine beeped once, displaying on its screen Taillow's data and image. "Taillow, the Tiny Swallow Pokémon. Taillow has a fierce personality, never backing down, even against the most powerful opponents," the Pokédex said in a monotone voice. Ash raised an eyebrow and pointed it at the other, larger ones. "Swellow, the Swallow Pokémon. Swellow is very conscientious about the upkeep of its glossy wings. Once two Swellow are gathered, they diligently take care of cleaning each other's wings. If its two tail feathers are standing at attention, it is proof of good health. It soars elegantly in the sky."

"Huh, they don't look that big," Ash commented in surprise as he examined the flock surrounding his friends.

Latias shook her head. "Not really, Taillow are rather small. They are smaller than Pikachu, and Swellow aren't that big either. Remember Harrison's Swellow? He was barely Bayleef's size. Pidgeot, with her impressive size, is easily three times bigger than a Swellow, and a Taillow would be lucky to be as big as her head."

"How dare you intrude into my territory?!" a Taillow bellowed angrily, descending towards the group. "This is my forest!" he declared boldly. He glared down at them. "That food you are daring to consume is mine! Now give us all your food or else things will get ugly! Anyone who dares to take even the slightest bit from my forest will have to pay dearly for it!"

Pidgeot snorted softly, shaking her head in amusement. "Really? I presume you are the leader of this flock? I was expecting someone more… impressive." She walked forward, standing in front of the group and facing the Taillow so as to denote she was the one to do the talking. "Or at least evolved."

Taillow glared at her, admitting she did seem like a formidable opponent, based solely on her size. "I don't need a silly evolution to be powerful at all! I am this flock's leader because I am the strongest one, even stronger than our Swellow. And I can kick your tail feathers to prove it," he threatened with an angry tone. "How dare you attack four members of my flock and steal our resources… this forest is ours and that's final!"

Ash winced at the small Pokémon's display of arrogant and cocky behavior. "Wow, what an attitude," he commented.

Pikachu nodded with amusement. "If Pidgeot wasn't the one doing the confrontation I'd love to shock the living daylights out of them with one powerful strike." Latios nodded in approval.

Pidgeot frowned. "Really? Drinking from a river is stealing your resources? You act like a human and a Smeargle drinking will dry an entire river. Or a small group like mine being able to consume all the trees that you claim belong to your flock. Really, your argument is stupid," she said sharply, eyes narrowing at the lead Taillow, denoting she was not the slightest bit intimidated.

Taillow squawked angrily in response. "This is my land and that's final! What you think doesn't matter at all to me," he said stubbornly. "All the Pokémon in the forest are our toys and slaves for all we care. The food and water belongs to us only. And if they don't like that, then they can leave."

Pidgeot sighed sadly. His attitude sounded bad from what Smeargle had described, but, he was much, much more of a jerk than she had expected. "You're a pathetic brat for a Leader. The way you conduct your flock is terribly thought out and executed. You should reconsider your mannerisms."

"What? How dare you insult me!?" Taillow shrieked angrily, further revealing his overinflated ego. "You are just a stupid solitary Flying Pokémon that plays with dumb humans! You have no idea how a flock is ruled, so you are no one to come and say that the way I run my flock is inadequate!"

Pidgeot chuckled softly, shaking her head in amusement. "A brat like you is always good for a laugh. But for your information, I was a flock leader for over a year, and raised said flock from being one of the smallest and weakest in the forest to being the biggest and strongest. I left when my assistance was no longer needed. So yes, I am capable of coming and telling you to your face that you are a terrible flock leader."

Taillow growled at Pidgeot as his anger continued to accumulate. "How dare you…" He said in a low tone of voice. "You are thinning my patience badly, so I really suggest you shut up this instant!" he threatened while keeping his glare on the much larger Pokémon that was still calmly standing on the ground.

Pidgeot snorted at the not very impressive threat. "Then come and shut me up if you're so brave," she challenged him, voice clearly defiant.

"Oh, I certainly intend to," Taillow sneered. He raised his head towards Smeargle, glaring at her. Smeargle yelped fearfully and hid behind Bianca. "She and your friend are going to have it badly for attacking four members of my flock."

Pidgeot spread her wings slightly. "Oh, really? Have it for what, drinking from 'your' river? What's wrong with that? It's not like it's going to dry up or they are going to drink all the water."

"It's my damned river! That's why! They are not allowed to even get near it! Not my flock's river, nor my flock's berries! Understand!?" Taillow shrieked stubbornly.

Pidgeot shook her head once, closing her eyes for a second. "You are the worst flock leader I've ever seen in my life. You are a self-centered, stubborn, ego-stuffed, shortsighted, whiny brat that has a very stupid mindset about the forest," she said, voice firm as she opened her eyes to glance back at the Taillow and Swellow flock. "You seem like a teen, not an adult. I do wonder how you made it to flock leader, but your inexperience and lack of leadership is evident."

"I am the flock leader because I am the strongest one here! And that's even over the Swellow!" Taillow answered angrily, flapping his tiny wings harshly.

"There is a lot more to being a leader than power," Pidgeot said coolly. "Thinking about fighting and power will only lead your flock to their doom. Just looking at the unconfident and afraid way the rest of your flock holds itself speaks of the tension around you."

Taillow squeaked angrily. "You dare to question the integrity of my flock!? You shut up! I don't care who you think you are, but I'm here to teach you a lesson for drinking my water, taking my berries and fruits, and daring to attack my flock!"

"You are the same as a Fearow whose flock was a bitter rival of mine. Want to know what happened to him for his selfish attitude? His flock kicked him out after I handed all of them enough defeats," Pidgeot said causally, her wings fluttering coolly at her sides. "Really, you are messing with the wrong Pidgeot, and behind me, with the wrong group. If there is one thing I know how to do well, it's how to handle egocentric brats like you alongside their entire flocks."

"We'll see about that!" Taillow screeched angrily. He turned towards a group of roughly ten Pokémon within his flock, being several Taillow and a couple of Swellow. "Attack her!" He ordered.

Pidgeot shook her head in dismay. "Attacking me is a bad idea," she warned. The Flying-types squeaked and screeched in return and flapped their wings, charging up several attacks. Some used Peck, others used Wing Attack, and the Swellow used Aerial Ace. All charged towards the lone Pidgeot, who was still standing on the grassy ground. Pidgeot didn't look very alarmed by the birds ganging up on her, with a year's experience having to hold off Fearow's entire flock, and some future rivals, she knew how to defend herself against large numbers. At least ten avian Pokémon rushed towards Pidgeot from different angles at their leader's command.

"Pidgeot! Watch out!" Ash cried out. Latias and Latios were debating over intervening or not, but Pidgeot's confident stance was confusing the two siblings. She didn't seem alarmed at all, so they decided to stay put and let her handle it unless it was evident she needed assistance.

Pidgeot looked at the incoming attackers with her sharp eyes and extended her wings as an orb of yellow energy appeared above her. Powerful streaks of golden energy encased her body, followed by a huge sphere of lavender-colored energy as she used Giga Impact.

The Taillow and Swellow squawked at the sudden counterattack, but with the speed that they were rushing at her at, they were unable to stop in time. They smashed into Pidgeot, making her sphere of energy vibrate and tremble with each powerful impact, but she didn't seem bothered. On the other hand, her adversaries screeched in pain as they all took massive amounts of damage from colliding against a gigantic Giga Impact. Pidgeot narrowed her eyes, spread her wings wider, and then gave a mighty flap with both her wings. The energy she had gathered all around her detonated outwards in a huge blast of gold and purple vibrant energy. The Taillow and Swellow screeched as they were blasted away, crashing into the grass a dozen feet away from Pidgeot or into trees, making the leaves rustle.

"Ouch," Smeargle commented, wincing at the beating that part of the flock took in a single attack. Her admiration for Pidgeot rose sky high, as did her hope that the bullies would finally get the beating they deserved.

"Whoa," Ash commented, impressed. "That was a good use for Giga Impact!"

Latios nodded. _"She must have learned how to do that in order to protect herself from attacks and numbers. I wouldn't put it past that coward Fearow to order his flock to attack her while he hid in the background," _he said, gauging Pidgeot's technique. She really was very powerful.

Brock hummed, clearly amazed by Pidgeot's strength. "Indeed. It seems she's grown a lot during the year she was on her own."

Pidgeot looked up at the leader Taillow, who didn't seem happy at the fact that his multiple attack on her had failed so badly. "I warned you, trying to attack me like that is a bad idea. A flock as poorly managed and raised like yours is pitiful. You don't have the sight of a leader, and soon, the evidence of that will come at you like a flash of lightning. "

"Bite me!" Taillow spat back, irritated at the older Flying and Normal-type. Knowing the downside of using Giga Impact, the few moments of immobility that came from using and releasing so much energy at once, he charged at her, streaks of wind surrounding him as he flew towards Pidgeot rapidly with an Aerial Ace. Pidgeot narrowed her eyes and made no attempt to dodge.

Taillow rammed into her chest harshly, making Pidgeot let out a small grunt, but outside of that she didn't seem to take much damage; in fact, she didn't even budge in the slightest. Taillow gasped at Pidgeot's lack of response towards his attack and glared up at her. Pidgeot, now regaining her power after using Giga Impact, looked down at the Taillow as one of her wings began generating a bright white glow. Taillow, knowing what was going to happen, righted himself and immediately flapped his wings to try and get away, but he was too slow. Pidgeot didn't have any second thoughts on her mind as she effortlessly smashed a powerful Steel Wing into him. The Tiny Swallow Pokémon screeched in pain and crashed into a tree, denting the bark badly. "I think you all lost already," Pidgeot commented, but she was taken back slightly when she saw all the Taillow and Swellow she bad blasted away begin to regain their footing. Even the leader Taillow was scrambling back on his talons, despite the fact that he was beaten with a wing made of pure steel.

"You're so damn cocky, you overgrown Pidgey," Taillow rasped out angrily as his spite for his opponent continued to rise. "Let's see if you can back your taunts in a one on one fight against me, the strongest Taillow there is!"

Pidgeot shrugged. "If you desire," she said simply, flapping her wings as she began to take flight to face her challenger in the air.

Latias frowned. "_They're gonna battle now? It's obvious Pidgeot is a lot stronger and bigger than the Taillow, can't he just admit it and get it over with?" _she wondered, clearly exasperated.

"Well Latias, the Pokédex did say Taillow never backed down from fights, no matter how strong and powerful the opponent is," Ash replied. "And I guess it was right."

Bianca shrugged, petting the Smeargle she had befriended. "Let them fight, I just want lunch to be ready," she said idly, making everyone sweatdrop.

Ash nodded in agreement. "I say yes to that logic, how much time is left, Brock?" he asked.

Brock hummed, moving over to the pot where his stew was, which he somehow had set up without anyone noticing. "I still have to finish cutting all the fruit for the cocktails, so, it'll still take ten or so more minutes."

Smeargle nodded. "Great, enough time for Pidgeot to teach that Taillow a lesson!" she said eagerly, looking at the aerial battle with interest, and clearly hoping the Taillow lost.

Pikachu blinked. "You're rather eager."

"Of course I am!" Smeargle said excitedly. "That guy and his flock have been a pain in the tail to everyone in the forest, I'm really eager to see them finally getting their tail feathers handed to them."

Taillow squeaked angrily upon hearing the Painter Pokémon's statement. "Shut up you pathetic Smeargle! Once I'm done with the Pidgeot, you're next!"

Pidgeot sighed in exasperation. "That's if you're ever done with me, which I seriously doubt," she said calmly, not a single hint of agitation or nervousness in her mind regarding the upcoming showdown.

"You're really pissing me off," Taillow said angrily. "I'll make you pay for it!" He flapped his wings and lunged at Pidgeot at an extremely fast speed.

Pidgeot flapped her own wings, but Taillow was clearly faster in close range. His wings glowed white as he passed by her with a Wing Attack, hitting the side of her chest with a swift pass. Pidgeot merely grunted from the received strike and looked on as Taillow flew away. _'He's smaller and probably has greater maneuverability and acceleration in a small space than I do,' _Pidgeot analyzed, eyes locked on her opponent as the Tiny Swallow Pokémon turned around and headed at her again. _'But I have greater strength, endurance, experience and power, and on longer distances I'd be faster too,' _she summarized. It wasn't really a hard fight, definitely not as hard as the one against Norman's Slaking.

"Take this!" Taillow bellowed angrily as white streaks of light began to form around him before he promptly charged at her with Aerial Ace. Pidgeot's keen eyesight kept track of every movement of the speedy Taillow. Once she noticed his attack pattern and realized he was once again going to try a swift pass, she played her hand. With a quick flap of her wings she aligned herself right in Taillow's path, her beak beginning to emanate a white glow and growing in size as she prepared a Peck attack.

Taillow frowned, rather perplexed by his opponent's movement. Instead of trying to dodge or move away Pidgeot had moved right into his attack, and at this range, he was unable to alter his course either. Taillow crashed right into Pidgeot's chest at full force. Pidgeot winced and was pushed back several feet along the attack. Unlike when she was hit when she was on the ground, she didn't have an effective brace to keep from being pushed back. Pidgeot's wings spread wide, stopping the backwards push and thus ending Taillow's momentum and also leaving him right open for her attack.

Pidgeot lowered her head and used the Peck attack she had prepared before Taillow hit her, smashing her powered up beak into his back several times in rapid succession. As he screeched in pain from the blows, she made two powerful stabs at his wings, causing him to start plummeting towards the ground as his wings were temporarily disabled from the pain. She took aim at the descending Taillow and then flapped her wings mightily, sending a pair of Air Slash wind blades towards the rapidly descending Taillow. They smashed on his back and increased the force he crashed into the dirt dramatically, throwing up a large dust cloud at the ruthless impact. "I'd be very surprised if he survives that," Pidgeot muttered lowly to herself. A couple of the Taillow and Swellow glared at her angrily and squawked insults at her; she merely glared back at them and they instantly fell silent in fear.

"Well, he did show he's pretty feisty," Latios commented, shrugging and thinking that the Taillow had already been defeated. "Just get it over with, Pidgeot, the meal's gonna be ready any moment now."

Pidgeot nodded, gazing at Latios out of the corner of her eye. "Will do, Latios."

"Ugh, you're gonna pay for that!" Taillow screeched as he slowly stood up, shaking his aching wings to brush the dirt off.

Pidgeot blinked once in surprise, as did the Eon twins and Pikachu. "Okay, you have good resistance, I'll give you that." She spread her wings and then began to flap them very forcefully, sending a series of Air Slash blades towards the smaller avian. Taillow yelped and flapped his wings immediately to dodge the attacks, successfully raising himself and gaining enough altitude, but Pidgeot kept up her powerful attacks, forcing him to dodge each of her dual attacks.

Taillow quickly skimmed between the Bird Pokémon's attacks, his small size and high maneuverability being of great help in evading the powerful Air Slashes. Taillow quickly followed up with an Aerial Ace. Pidgeot narrowed her eyes, noting his trajectory. _'He's heading for my wings,'_ she thought. It was a very smart strategy, as she knew that if he managed to hit a wing solidly in the right place he could cripple her.

Unbeknownst to Taillow, she was well prepared for a situation like that. Her wings began to glow as she utilized Steel Wing, hardening both of them to metallic properties. Taillow gasped at the sight; he certainly wasn't expecting that to happen. A very loud crash echoed as Taillow flew smack-dab into her wings, followed with a loud cry of pain. Pidgeot shook her head slowly, and then raised both wings high above her head. Without any second thoughts, she slammed them down onto Taillow, _hard_.

"Aaaaahhhhhhhh!" Taillow screamed in pain as Pidgeot's double hit with her Steel Wing sent him plummeting towards the ground yet again. This time, he smashed into a tree, painfully crashing through the branches as he made his way downwards. He emerged from the tree's leafy top and crashed painfully into the ground.

The rest of Taillow's flock looked on in shock, not believing how powerful this Pidgeot was and how their leader was losing so terribly, despite his best efforts. Some wanted to help, but they knew that'd only anger Taillow as he had requested a one-on-one battle. And really, if she was beating the strongest of them and had easily deflected a group attack, none of them were particularly eager to get painfully beaten up by her.

Pidgeot looked down towards the unmoving Taillow near the tree bark. "This is ove-" She gawked when she saw him move and begin to stand up again. _'Oh, are you serious!?'_ she thought in annoyance.

Taillow slowly struggled to get up, pure willpower and stubbornness keeping him up at this point. He absolutely refused to give up and let the win go to Pidgeot. _'I will not be defeated!'_ he thought determinedly, especially not right in front of all his flock. He panted heavily as he raised himself, his entire body aching as if every bone in his body was annihilated. He could taste the blood in his beak already from the terrible blows from Pidgeot's Steel Wing. Giving off a low growl, he spat the blood on the grass. "You will pay for this!" he shot back angrily, turning around and glaring at Pidgeot as he brought up a wing to wipe the blood on his beak away.

Pidgeot closed her eyes for a couple seconds thoughtfully, and then opened them, looking down at Taillow with a soft expression. "I really suggest you give up, this battle is fairly pointless. I am clearly way out of your league, and while I admit your determination to keep fighting has surprised me, stop it. Stop it before I injure you badly," she said levelheadedly. "I have no desire to hurt you."

Taillow shook his head stubbornly. "Never!" he yelled as he flapped his wings, taking to the sky once more and preparing to continue the pointless fight.

"Pidgeot should end this somehow, if this continues she'll badly injure the Taillow," Brock advised with a frown. "It's like he won't call it quits until she kills him or something."

Latias sighed. "His determination is admirable, at least," she said. Smeargle snorted at all the other's comments, silently hoping the battle would drag on a lot longer and Pidgeot would really kick the Taillow's tail feathers badly. She also didn't mind if there was more blood than just a trickle on his beak.

"_Eh, when's lunch ready?"_ Latios asked, turning towards Brock. Everyone else sweatdropped collectively at the Eon dragon's lack of interest towards the Taillow's condition after the most recent attacks he took or the outcome of the battle.

"That's something I'd expect Ash to say, not you," Pikachu commented. Latios shrugged.

Pidgeot pondered slowly what to do. She didn't want to badly hurt Taillow any further as she just wanted to teach him a good lesson as to how to be a good flock leader, but at the same time, it was clear the Taillow wouldn't leave peacefully. She hummed as an idea crossed her mind on how to end the battle as soon as possible. With Taillow's raw determination playing a factor in the battle, this could easily continue until she killed him. "You really are stubborn," she commented. "I do admit you are strong, and your resistance and determination are worthy."

Taillow cawed angrily. "You'll be admitting a lot more than that when I ram your beak into the ground bitch!" he snarled as he charged at her, wings glowing white with a Wing Attack.

Pidgeot flapped her wings and took off towards the air quickly, easily outpacing and evading Taillow's Wing Attack. "Huh!?" He questioned in shock, looking around as Pidgeot's speed made him lose sight of her.

Pidgeot dive bombed towards Taillow, using an Aerial Ace to increase her speed dramatically. She narrowed her eyes, knowing she had him.

Taillow gasped as he heard Pidgeot's attack coming from above. He looked up, eyes widening as he saw Pidgeot coming right at him like a speedy predator locked onto its prey. She was coming in too fast for him to react accordingly. He instantly knew he couldn't dodge out of this one. "Oh crap…" he muttered, dreading the hit that would surely come and possibly end his life.

'_Got you,'_ Pidgeot thought to herself, feeling very pleased that the battle was over. Instead of charging beak-first at him, she up righted herself just before she hit him so her feet were the ones to first make contact on him. With deadly precision, she closed her talons around the Tiny Swallow Pokémon. Taillow gasped as he saw the ground nearing quickly, and with Pidgeot's weight on top of him, he knew that this would be a very painful crash. He closed his eyes and braced for the inevitable. Pidgeot, however, didn't have any intention of further harming him. She spread her wings, slowing her descent until she landed with an almost gentle thud on the ground. Pidgeot adjusted her feet to get a better grip, keeping Taillow firmly pinned to the ground under her, while making sure to press him down in a way that'd limit his movement.

Taillow growled and struggled as hard as he could to free himself, but the grip of Pidgeot's feet and her body weight keeping him pinned to the ground made it impossible to escape. "Ugh… Ugngnhhg…" he moaned, as all the battle's hits took their toll on his pained body. "Get your lousy, stinking feet off me, bitch! Let me go!" he cursed madly, struggling harder.

Pidgeot merely tilted her head and tightened the grip her feet had on him, making her talons press to his skin hard, not enough to puncture, but enough to make their presence there clearly known to the Taillow. One of the talons was dangerously close to his neck, and the other painfully aimed at one of his precious wings. "I'm in control here, so I strongly suggest you shut up and listen to me carefully."

"Screw you, bitch!" Taillow said stubbornly. Pidgeot tightened her grip even more, and the Tiny Swallow Pokémon could feel her claws starting to tear his skin at his neck, wings, and chest. Taillow screamed. "Alright! Alright! Sheesh! You crazy female!" he finally cried out in fear. Pidgeot nodded, easing up slightly on the pressure of her foot and her talons on his neck and wings. Taillow sighed in relief, but was still very uncomfortable pinned under Pidgeot's feet and weight. "Let me up now?" he asked, trying to see if she fell for his next dirty trick up his wing.

Pidgeot snorted at his deplorable attempt to trick her. "So you can try to fight me more? Nope. Listen, the battle is pointless, it's clear you're not going to beat me, and now I'm going to teach you a few lessons and you _are_ going to listen." Her razor-sharp talon grazed his wing. "Or you can say goodbye to your flying days." Taillow paled and nodded rapidly. No stupid argument was worth his beloved wings.

The rest of his flock watched rather nervously, whispering among each other, but none had the guts to stand up to Pidgeot. "Fine, what do you want?" Taillow grunted, ceasing his futile struggles against Pidgeot's talons.

"I already made my point clear when we talked before our little battle," Pidgeot began. "It was very stupid and short-sighted on your part to behave towards everyone else like you have. Really, you get angry at someone just because they drank from the river in your territory?"

"It's my river!" Taillow protested angrily.

"Yes, but it's not like it will dry up just becomes someone drinks from it," Pidgeot said levelheadedly, gazing down at the Tiny Swallow Pokémon. "For your own good, I strongly recommend you adopt a nicer attitude towards your flock and the forest Pokémon. You don't need to be a cocky jerk to be a leader or prove your strength."

Taillow snorted, not caring at all. "Why shouldn't I? I don't see any reason not to."

"I was a flock leader for over a year, and I've seen a leader like you before. Arrogant, short-sighted, hateful, a huge stuffed ego… in the end, his flock expelled him because they got fed up with his stupidity," Pidgeot said, causing Taillow to gulp and look up at his flock nervously. "And believe it or not, getting along with the forest Pokémon can be extremely useful."

Taillow frowned. "I don't see how…"

"If a danger or catastrophe strikes your flock, or perhaps unexpected competition flies in to settle on your territory, which can easily happen, you'll be alone. All the forest Pokémon will be against you and will only make that difficulty worse because chances are, they'll align themselves with the invaders or band up to make your problems worse," Pidgeot explained, her voice taking a gentler and kinder tone, genuinely wanting to help the Taillow. "Befriending the other Pokémon can keep something like that from happening."

Taillow winced. His flock was relatively young and recently made, easily noticeable in the fact that most of its members were still Taillow, and there were so few Swellow. Taillow also knew that he was rather new to being a Leader and had never thought about that. "Uh…"

"When something bad happens to your flock, all the Pokémon you bully today will join up to make your situation go from bad to worse. They'll take advantage of it to hurt you," Pidgeot advised wisely. "That's why, if you are kind and nice to them instead, when something bad happens, they will _help_ you instead."

"I… never really saw it that way…" Taillow mumbled. While he liked being the boss, he didn't want that to last so shortly, and even through his mindset, he could see the reason in Pidgeot's words.

Pidgeot nodded. "That is part of the reason why I'm helping you to become a better leader, for your own good and your flock's benefit, and also for the good of the forest Pokémon like Smeargle. Share your food, water and land. Really, it won't dent your resources that much, and the benefit you'd gain is massive. You'd get potential friends and allies to help you in times where you need assistance. I know very well, I was able to raise a small flock to the forest's biggest in less than a year."

"What's a situation in which you being 'nice' to all the forest Pokémon helped you?" Taillow asked curiously, feeling genuinely interested in Pidgeot's knowledge. He hadn't exactly thought about things like that.

"As the flock leader, I always taught my underlings to be nice to all local Pokémon regardless of who they are, to let them be in our territory and to give them protection. It paid off very well when a member of my flock had gotten ill with a strange infection and it quickly spread to at least a quarter of my flock. I was scared so I did the only thing I knew could be done, I asked the local Grass, Poison and Bug-type Pokémon for their aid, to help me make a cure out of natural plants and spores readily available to them. Since I had always been kind to them in every possible instance, they helped me, and within a day, I had a cure ready to heal my ill flock, and soon everyone was restored to full health," Pidgeot said, her voice filled with nostalgia as she remembered the old times with her flock. She missed them all. "If I had been like you, instead of being helped, the local Pokémon would have let my flock die from the sickness, or they'd take advantage of the situation and attack us while we were ill and weak to finish us off."

Taillow looked down, pondering what Pidgeot had said. "Oh…" As much as his regular egocentric nature hated to admit it, she was right. He couldn't think of a single argument to use against her, nor could he think of a way to justify his actions to her comparisons.

Pidgeot nodded. "The price to pay is little, really. It's not like a couple dozen Pokémon drinking from 'your river' will make it dry up or something. And the possible benefits you can gain are really high. That would also increase the unity and create a friendlier atmosphere within your flock, which would make them support you as their leader a lot more," Pidgeot continued. "And really, what you did right now, coming to attack my group out of a stupid motive, was also pretty dangerous. I'm not even the strongest one here. We could all very easily beat your entire flock and not lose sleep over it. So, you should not let anger or your overinflated ego decide your actions; it'll only prove hazardous for you. If my group was meaner, we could easily wipe you all out."

Taillow sighed, heavily pondering everything that Pidgeot said. He couldn't deny her since the experience and instincts of a leader were clearly evident inside her voice and she certainly knew what she was doing and saying. He couldn't simply deny it, she was right, and he knew it. "You're… right… I guess, I can't argue with it," Taillow admitted with a grimace. He just hated it when he had to swallow his ego and admit he was wrong.

Pidgeot chuckled and took a step back, letting Taillow free from her deadly talons. "I suggest you leave now. And keep in mind what I said. You should change for the better, you won't regret it. You are very strong and your determination to fight is very good. You have the strength to be a good flock leader, now you need to change your attitude to a more fitting one and you'll be good to go," she said kindly, nodding once. "If you'd like, one of my friends can treat your injuries."

"I'm fine," Taillow said, once again surprising Pidgeot by standing up on his own despite the beating she gave him. "I'll… think about what you said. Okay?" the very small avian muttered. He flapped his wings and reunited with his flock, his expression clearly thoughtful. "I guess we'll leave now."

Pidgeot nodded, satisfied that the confrontation had come to an end and that the Taillow had seen her point. "Very well."

Taillow hummed, thinking hard on something. He decided to give it a try as there was nothing to lose. He turned around, facing Pidgeot. "Hey, would you like to come with us?" He asked hopefully.

"What?" Pidgeot responded in surprise.

"Come with us! You're powerful, a great leader, and I gotta admit you're a gorgeous Pokémon. You'd be a great second leader for our flock. A flock is a better place for a flying-type than with a human trainer," Taillow offered, voice bright and hopeful. "You'll like it. And you can help us change and become better and more powerful."

"You're not one to judge what's better or worse for me, and in any case, I refuse your offer," Pidgeot said simply. "I'm not going with you."

Taillow sulked but remained optimistic. "But you'll like it! There's lots of food, water and a very nice place to live!" Taillow said, and then, to her surprise, he looked at Pidgeot lasciviously. "And I promise you that I'll keep your female needs very well satisfied. I can be _very_ good at pleasuring a woman, right girls?" he said in a sly tone, turning to look at his flock. At least a dozen or so Taillow and a few Swellow, all of them clearly female, nodded in agreement, eagerly backing up their leader's statement. "See! They can vouch for my sexual skills. I promise you that you'll always be well pleased, whenever you desire. I promise it!"

Latios, Latias, Smeargle and Pikachu blushed at the comment, while Ash blinked, confused as to why they all blushed. "I still decline your offer," Pidgeot replied, her voice remaining rather neutral. "You are filled with traits I wouldn't want in a potential mate, so no."

Taillow sighed. "Well, at least I tried, but this was your loss!" he called out. "We'll leave now. Goodbye." Taillow turned and flew away, his mind heavily pondering all that Pidgeot that taught him. His flock followed him without looking back, and soon all the birds had disappeared into the tree tops.

Pidgeot scoffed and turned to look at her group, walking back towards them. "See? Problem solved," she said, looking down at Smeargle.

Smeargle nodded. "Thank you very much, you're very strong. I wish I had the power and motivation to stand up to them like that…"

Pidgeot looked at her kindly, wrapping a wing gently around her. Smeargle sighed in contentment at the comforting hug and the Bird Pokémon's warm feathers. "It's fine, everyone has their own traits. You dislike fighting and its okay. But in any case, I dealt with the problem already." Smeargle smiled at her, glad that the very large avian Pokémon was very comprehensive and nice.

"That was an amazing battle you had there, Pidgeot," Ash praised the bird, hugging her gently while running his hands down her back.

"Thank you, Ash," Pidgeot replied, tone tender as she hugged him back. "I told you I'd be fine." She paused. "So, where's lunch? I'm hungry."

Latias turned to look at Brock. _"She says when's lunch ready?"_ she translated. Admittedly, she too was starving.

"Almost done," Brock answered, already serving the plates of the food for both humans and Pokémon.

Pikachu frowned with a rather uncomfortable look on his expression. "Uh… Pidgeot?" he asked awkwardly, looking down at the ground.

"Yes, Pikachu?" Pidgeot replied, turning her attention towards the Electric type.

"Taillow said he offered you good sex… and apparently all the females in his flock were his harem, so… is that how flocks work? Does that mean that you… uh," Pikachu blushed brightly as he tried to get the courage to finish his question. "You know, um…did it with all your flock's males?" the Electric Mouse Pokémon asked, feeling tongue-tied and flushed at what he had just asked his friend. Everyone turned to look at Pidgeot.

Pidgeot blinked once and then giggled. "Oh, Pikachu…" she muttered, amused. She gave him a teasing look. "I'll leave the answer entirely to your imagination." She turned and walked towards the bowls of food, leaving Pikachu to attend to his confusion and embarrassment on his own.

Latias and Latios looked at each other, also wondering what the answer was. They could read Pidgeot's mind to know, but they knew violating a friend's private thoughts like that was a very rude gesture, so they had to put up with the doubt as well. Ash looked confused at the question, not understanding it, but he figured it wasn't important and just went to his food, which was in fact important.

Bianca looked down at the Smeargle. "Now that the Taillow are taken care of, what will you do now?" She asked curiously. The Painter Pokémon turned towards her and let out a series of barks and vocalizations of her name.

"_She says that she'll take up on our offer to eat with us, and then she'll leave to continue her life in the woods,"_ Latios translated. _"She says thanks for being nice and showing her your art."_ Bianca nodded and gave the Smeargle a gentle scratch behind the ears. Smeargle grinned slightly. She had to wonder if she really did want to go back to the forest.

Ash turned to look at Brock. "And us? It's already late noon, it'll darken in a few hours," he said, looking up towards the sky.

Brock hummed. "There's a Pokémon Center in the middle of the route. I think that after eating we should have enough time to reach it before nighttime sets in, so we can spend the night there," he suggested.

"Sounds like a plan. Now, let's eat!" Ash said eagerly, going straight towards his plate. The rest of the group chuckled and focused on each of their bowls and plates. They were all very glad to have Brock aboard the group now. The benefits he brought were undeniable in every possible way.

…

Meanwhile, in another part of the Petalburg Woods…

"This just isn't fair…" Jessie whined, walking in a terribly unmotivated posture along a dirt road running through the woods. She looked at the distant sun, already on its trip down towards the horizon as late noon began to set in.

James nodded lazily, his mood as bad as Jessie's. "We got beat again by those twerps, and that Slaking robot we got was supposed to be borderline unstoppable!" he complained in an irritated voice. He sighed pessimistically. "And we were almost blasted off to Rustboro City. Now we gotta walk back to the route's start to find the twerps again!" He grumbled.

Meowth moaned in aggravation, also as slung and beat down as the other two. "Well, you two know da sayin', 'crime pays little,'" he said, saddened.

"It's 'crime doesn't pay,' Meowth," James corrected, though he wasn't very eager to admit it. "And it's very fitting for us right now."

"Let's forget useless proverbs and start thinking about more important things, like how we capture the twerp's Pokémon." Jessie suggested, looking at James and Meowth out the corner of her eyes. "I'm open to suggestions."

"I give up on it," James said unenthusiastically. "Really, we were never able to beat them with just Pikachu, now with the dragons they're invincible…" he lamented sadly.

"And there's dat Pidgeot too…" Meowth muttered sadly. "She's tough."

Jessie sighed. "I can't argue at all…" She looked down towards the dirt. "Is this really worth it? We've been losing and losing to the twerps for years. I'm starting to wonder if we should just find something new to do…"

"No Jessie! We can't give up! Think of how excited the boss will be when we present him with Latios, Latias and Pikachu!" James said, trying to cheer his crestfallen friend up.

"What's the point…" Jessie muttered, her mood completely crashed down.

Meowth paused when a distinct sound reached his very sensitive ears. "Huh, what's dat?" he asked, looking around while trying to pinpoint the origin of the sound he was hearing.

James looked at him, though without any particular interest. "What's what Meowth?" he asked the talking Normal-type Pokémon.

"I hear something… it's like hissing," the feline Pokémon answered. "It sounds… scared, and pleading…" he frowned. "I wonder what it is."

Jessie smiled slightly. "Let's go and check, maybe it's an injured Pokémon we can capture easily, it'd make up for our lousy day," she suggested. "We really need a boost in our confidence after yesterday's defeat."

James nodded. "Let's go!" He agreed, and pushed Meowth forward. "Lead the way!" he said, his voice desperate for a glimmer of hope to shine down on their pretty much ruined careers as Pokémon thieves.

Meowth closed his eyes for a second, listening closely to try and get a more accurate reading on the sound's possible origin. After a couple of seconds, he grinned. "Found it!" He yelled once another hiss reached his ears, this time clear enough for him to locate it exactly. He sprang forward, away from the road and into the green and lush woods. The two humans followed him quickly.

"Hurry up Meowth!" Jessie yelled sharply, her voice more and more hopeful. "I can't wait to reach what'll make our day and finally give us something to send to the boss so he remembers we at least exist!"

Meowth turned his head briefly to look back at her, but he was still running. "Don't ya think I also wanna get dere!?" he shouted back in annoyance. When he turned his head to look back in front of him, he noticed something very important. He was a few steps away from a rather steep hill. "Aaaahhh!" Meowth screamed as he rolled down the hill, his momentum too great for him to stop.

Jessie winced slightly. "Ouch," she commented as she saw Meowth disappear past some bushes at the bottom of the hill. "I shouldn't have distracted him."

"Yeah, poor Meowth, that's gotta hurt," James agreed, nodding once. He pulled out a Pokéball and sent out his Weezing. "I need a lift, care to help me?" he asked, his voice caring and kind. Weezing nodded and levitated a little lower, letting James hug it and lift himself onto it. Weezing began to softly glide down the hill, his trainer firmly holding onto him.

Jessie took out a Pokéball of her own. "Arbok, come out!" She released the Poison-type Pokémon, who appeared before her in a bright flash of white dazzling light. "Care to help me go down the hill?" she asked kindly. Arbok nodded happily, nuzzling his trainer once, and then let her grab onto his hood. Jessie took hold of him and Arbok began to slither down the hill.

"Meowth! Meowth!" James called out as loud as he could as he and Weezing reached the bottom of the hill. "You okay?" he yelled loudly. "Where are you?"

"Ugh," Meowth's barely audible moan could be heard. "I'm here," he said shakily, stepping out of a few bushes, covered in cuts from landing in a rather thorny group of bushes. James stifled a laugh, but he was unable to, and began laughing at the cat's misery.

"Quit playing around, Meowth!" Jessie scolded once she too arrived at the bottom of the hill. "We've got Pokémon to steal!" she said harshly as she jumped off Arbok.

"I got busted on a buncha freakin' thorns and ya get angry at me!?" Meowth yelled exasperatedly, using his arms to indicate his cut-covered body. "I'm da one who located dis catch to start with!"

"Yeah, I get angry at you," Jessie said uninterestedly, brushing off the feline's angry comment like it was nothing. "Let's look around and see what we find," she said, walking towards the now very audible hissing. The other two followed her.

After a minute or two of walking, they came across a rather odd sight. "What the hell?" James muttered as the trio plus their other two Pokémon came across a very large rectangular object hidden between a pair of leafy trees and surrounded by a group of bushes. It was covered in a camouflaged tarp with additional leaves and twigs to hide it by blending it into the foliage. The hissing they were hearing was clearly coming from inside it.

Jessie frowned. "Okay, this is very odd," she commented as she reached forward and pulled the tarp off, exposing the thing it was hiding. The Team Rocket trio gasped in shock at the sight that greeted them. Under the camouflage tarp was a vehicle trailer with a huge cage in its back, and inside the cage were seven very badly beaten up Ekans. The Poison snake-like Pokémon were covered in burns, cuts and bruises, and all of them had terrified and hurt looks in their faces.

"A cage full of Ekans?!" Jessie cried in disbelief. "But how?"

James hummed. "Shocking, yes, but also it's very convenient, they're already in a cage!" he said excitedly, expecting this to be their easiest capture ever.

Meowth frowned sadly, feeling very bad for the Ekans inside the cage, their condition was simply terrible. "What happened to ya guys?" he asked, stepping closer to the Ekans trapped in the cage.

"Pleassse help usss!" One of the Ekans, a female, pleaded. "My nessst is nearby and it'sss unprotected, pleassse!" she hissed.

"Help usss out of here! I don't want to be captured!" Another Ekans pleaded with a very raspy and clearly pained voice, burns and cuts littering its body.

"Lisssten," another Ekans began, to answer the odd human-speaking Pokémon's question unlike the other two. "An evil human with really creepy Pokémon captured usss by forssse, he isss what humansss call a 'poacher' and he'sss very cruel… he wantsss to sssell usss or sssomething like that… We're all ssscared and terrified…" the Poison-type explained, clearly on the verge of tears from sheer terror.

"Get usss out of here! Pleassse!" Another of the Ekans pleaded. This one's voice was very young and he was openly crying.

"What are they saying, Meowth?" Jessie asked curiously. A pang of pain was tearing at her heart. She was also feeling rather saddened by the painful scene before her, Ekans was a Pokémon she could relate to very well.

"Dey're saying dat dey were captured by some evil poacher and dey're pleadin' with us to let 'em out," Meowth translated to the two humans. "Poor guys…"

Jessie frowned. "I came here with the intention to capture some Pokémon, but I don't know now, this really played against my feelings… I used to have an Ekans, and I love him," she said, reaching beside her and petting her beloved Arbok's head softly.

Arbok, who had tears in his eyes from the horrible scene before him, nodded slightly, pressing against Jessie's side. "Let'sss free them," he said, looking at Meowth, silently asking him to translate.

"Jessie, your Arbok says he wants dem freed," Meowth translated again.

Jessie nodded. "For once, I don't want to steal anything. Let's free them," she said. "We should hurry before the poacher shows up."

Meowth nodded. "Okay, where would this cage be opened from?" the cat-like Normal-type Pokémon wondered in a whispered voice, reaching with one of his paws towards the cage.

"No! Don't touch it!" an Ekans yelled, but it was too late. Meowth screamed in pain as a powerful electric shock ripped through him the second he touched the cage. The seven Ekans in the cage winced.

"Ouch," Weezing and Arbok muttered. They all knew from the twerp's Pikachu that electricity was painful, and they really weren't looking forward to being shocked.

"Dat hurt…" Meowth muttered in pain as he stumbled about, before falling on his back. "Ow…"

"Well, that was counterproductive," James muttered, crouching down and helping Meowth up. "You okay?"

"Do I look okay to ya!?" Meowth yelled, his body blackened and smoking and his fur standing on end from the electrical shock.

James frowned. "Let's spray it with Acid Jessie, that might melt it," he suggested, trying to be helpful.

"That's a great idea!" Jessie beamed. "Arbok, let's free your friends with Acid!"Arbok nodded eagerly, wanting to free his brethren as fast as possible. He opened his mouth and spat a large stream of poisonous acid, spraying the cage's dull grey metal bars with the sickly greenish grey liquid. To the Rocket trio's dismay, the metal didn't look affected in the slightest.

"Well, if the cage was made to store Poison-types, it's pretty smart if they made it acid proof," James commented, clearly dismayed. "Logical, I guess…"

Jessie sighed. "There's got to be way to open it," she said, looking at the cage. "Where did the cage open when the poacher put you all inside?" she asked the group of trapped Ekans.

One of the Ekans raised his tail and pointed at the side of the cage. "There," he said, not that Jessie could understand him.

"Looks like a lock," Jessie muttered while closely looking at the very small pad with a keyhole on the side of the cage. "And a really tough one, especially since it seems to be electrified too…" Arbok cried sadly and nuzzled Jessie, pleading her to help his pre-evolution brethren. She nodded. "We'll help Arbok, so don't worry, it's just not going to be easy."

James frowned. "How does he open it anyway? If it's electrified too, it would shock him seeing as keys are metallic," he wondered, confused.

"There must be a way to turn off the electricity then," Jessie said, examining the cage as a whole but not finding any clear way it could be opened.

James shook his head sadly. "Well, we can just try to destroy it by force," he commented, examining the lock closely. He took a few steps backwards and turned to look at his Poison-type. "Weezing, use Sludge Bomb on the lock!" he ordered.

"Okay!" Weezing said as he took a deep breath, preparing to launch the attack… and was suddenly tackled very harshly by a Fearow. "Aaahh!" Weezing cried in pain and smashed into James, causing both to topple over.

Jessie gasped, and then glared at the Fearow. "Hey, you stupid feather bag, what do you think you're doing!?" She yelled in anger. The Fearow cawed angrily at her, making her yelp back in fear.

"Someone's comin'!" Meowth yelled, pointing towards a rapidly approaching vehicle.

"Crap, the poacher's here," Jessie muttered, growling lowly. She had wanted to free the Ekans before she had to fight the one who captured them. The vehicle reached them quickly, its powerful engine roaring loudly and denoting it was modified to pull big loads. The large vehicle was very robust, a heavy-duty beige colored Jeep. Behind it were two cage trailers, just like the one holding the Ekans. Jessie and James gasped when they saw the contents of the two trailers. In the first one were at least eight or nine Koffing, which instantly made Weezing burst out crying. In the second cage was a variety of Poison-type Pokémon. There were a pair of Seviper, at least four Dustox, four Gulpin and also three Zubat. All of the Pokémon were in a terrible condition, just like the Ekans.

"That guy's gotta huge loada Pokémon!" Meowth cried out in shock.

The Jeep stopped abruptly a few meters from the Ekans-loaded cage trailer. The Jeep's driver side door swung open, and a man slowly stepped down. "Alright you stupid clowns, who the hell are you two to mess with my property!" he yelled in a rough and angry voice as he crossed his arms over his chest. He was very tall, dressed in black heavy boots, grey cargo pants and a dark red shirt with a thick vest with many pockets over it. He had forest green hair and a very harsh expression on his face.

James smirked. "Did you hear that Jessie? I think he should…" he began, hinting towards Jessie.

"Prepare for Trouble! Finders keepers, loser's weepers!" Jessie began, posing dramatically.

"We're Team Rocket so make it double, jeeper's creepers!" James continued, posing dramatically alongside Jessie.

Jessie changed her pose. "To protect the world from devastation!" she said.

James changed his pose to one vaguely similar to Jessie's. "To unite all people within our nation!" he said.

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!" Jessie said, looking at the baffled poacher with a defiant stare.

"To extend our reach to the starts above!" James continued, looking at the poacher with the same stare as Jessie.

"Jessie," Jessie said, introducing herself.

"James," James said, introducing himself.

"Team Rocket, blasting off at the speed of light!" Jessie bellowed mightily, or so she tried, it didn't come out particularly impressive.

"Surrender those Ekans, Koffing and all other Pokémon or prepare to fight!" James bellowed equally mightily, but his effeminate voice made it pathetic.

"And Meowth! Dat's very right!" Meowth ended, posing between the two Team rocket thieves.

The poacher blinked, looking at the three with a rather baffled expression as if he had just finished watching a poorly executed comedy stunt. "That was a pathetic waste of my time. Let's try this again. Who the hell do you think you three are!? And what the hell are you doing with _my_ Pokémon!" He yelled angrily, more than ticked off by their silly antics.

Jessie sighed. "Weren't you paying attention to the motto!? It was all in there!" she said exasperatedly.

"We're Team Rocket! I'm James, she's Jessie. And we're going to be taking away those Ekans and Koffing!" James followed up. "And there's nothing you can do about it, you creep!"

"Yeah! That's right!" Meowth agreed. "And who are you anyway, dummy?"

The hunter sighed exasperatedly, already very annoyed with the trio. "Seems like we'll have to start from square one. I'm Hunter Rico, the Pokémon Poacher of Hoenn. And it is very stupid of you three to try and steal my property. You guys…" Rico looked at them with a sinister expression on his face while snarling. "Have no idea who you are dealing with."

"What are you doing with all those Pokémon!?" Jessie asked. She was obviously angered at their condition, especially that of the Ekans.

"Per my client's wishes, I am poaching as many Poison-types as I can find within a forty-eight hour period. I get a really nice bounty for each one, and as you can see from my three cages. I am already done," Rico said darkly, and then smirked as he turned to look at Arbok and Weezing. "Almost. You made a grave mistake waltzing in here and trying to poach from a poacher like me."

"We're thieves too you know!" James argued. "Who's going to turn down a great chance when someone else already did the dirty work?"

Rico nodded, he could see their point as he was a thief as well after all. "I know. I've heard of Team Rocket before. But I can tell you three are pretty lousy thieves," he said, shaking his head in an odd combination of annoyance and amusement at the two idiots. "Bunch of silly amateurs, you shouldn't mess with a professional like me."

"Who are you calling amateurs!?" Jessie shouted angrily in offence, shaking her fist at him.

Meowth frowned, examining themselves next to the poacher before them. "I do gotta admit, he caught three cages worth of Poison-types in two days and we've failed at gettin' a Pikachu in two _years_," he lamented sadly.

Rico laughed mockingly. "Pathetic. Well, as fellow thieves, I'll go easy on you three. Give me your Arbok and Weezing, and I'll let you three go without a scratch."

Jessie gasped. "What!?" she said in shock, not quite believing what she just heard.

"The nerve! Never!" James cried out in anger. "You said we're fellow thieves! Why steal from us now!?"

Rico snorted. "Simple, you tried to steal from me first. Normally I don't poach fellow criminals so had you three not tried to poach me I'd not be interested in your Poison-types. But since you three tried to steal from me first, its only natural I return the favor to teach you a lesson about meddling in the affairs of those who are in the big leagues," he explained, smirking sinisterly. "I'll also want the Meowth. While my client said only Poison-types, I can try selling him elsewhere. A talking Pokémon might be worth something on the black market."

Meowth gasped. "Never! Team Rocket has been everything for me, so I'm not coming with you!" he yelled, terrified at the idea.

"No!" Jessie yelled. "My Arbok was a birthday present and he's the most precious thing to me! You are not taking him away, you lousy criminal!" she said firmly. Arbok nodded and nuzzled his beloved trainer.

"I agree with her!" James said immediately. "My Weezing is my brother in all rights, he was a Christmas gift! And you are _not_ taking him!"

Rico shook his head slowly. "Pitiable. I'm a Pokémon Hunter remember? I steal without giving a damn for the emotional attachments of the people I steal from. I only care about the money that goes into my bank account after a good day of poaching and lawbreaking," he spoke laconically and sadistically. "But since you three are obviously not going to hand them over peacefully, looks like I'll have to take them… the hard way." He grabbed a single Pokéball. "Go!" he ordered as he hurled the device through the air.

A bright flash of light followed as a medium-sized quadruped Pokémon was released. It was covered in white fur on all its body, with a fluffy ruff around its neck and chest, and a round tuft that cascaded down to the side of its head adorned with a blue oval on the center of the forehead. The Pokémon had a blue feline-like face with a very scary scythe growing on the side of its head, along with a sickle-like tail. Its legs were long and strong, with three blue claws sprouting from each round paw. The Pokémon blinked and looked at Team Rocket with a blank and emotionless expression.

James gasped. "I know those! That's an Absol!" he called out, shocked.

Jessie shivered at the emotionless and blank expression the Absol had. "Talk about a wicked kitty," she commented. "I prefer Meowth."

Rico chuckled. "Fearow," he said. The brown avian Pokémon flew down and landed beside the Absol, an angry and defiant expression on its face.

James blinked, looking between the empty and rather… unnerving expression of the Absol to the fierce and angry expression of the Fearow. At least he had an expression to gauge. "What's wrong with the Absol?" He asked, frightened as he'd never seen a Pokémon act so…dead.

Rico stared at him in disbelief. "Really? Really? Really!? You don't know? You two really are the worst criminals I've met in my entire career if you don't recognize a Slave Pokémon when you see it," he said, rather shocked.

"Slave Pokémon?" Jessie asked, confused. She admitted she's heard the term before somewhere, but she had forgotten what the concept of it was. As hard as she thought back, she couldn't quite remember what that was. Meowth gulped at the Absol's creepy expression.

"Guess I'll tell you just so you learn something new about the criminal world. At the same time that'll definitely help you two become better criminals," Rico said with a smirk. "It's only natural I tell you what kind of Pokémon will be the one to steal yours. Slave Pokémon are Pokémon specially and strictly trained from _birth _to only know two simple things … obey their masters and battle efficiently. Their minds are so underdeveloped by the rigorous training that they can't think outside of blind obedience; they don't know anything else! They are simply the perfect servants because no matter what you do, they obey you word by word because that's the only thing they know to do. Their minds are so tiny and stupid they can't think past that. Of course, only a handful of specialized crime syndicates and organizations can train them. I'm surprised, I'd think an organization like Team Rocket would have hundreds of them by now," Rico explained.

James gulped. "Talk about evil…" he muttered, rather unnerved. "Think we can beat it?" he asked, looking towards Jessie.

"For Arbok and Weezing, we can!" Jessie said defiantly.

Rico laughed at the fact that these three clowns were still trying to put up resistance against him. "Listen, I suggest you stop wasting my time and just give me your Pokémon before I hurt you. Slave Pokémon, apart from being trained to only obey their buyers, are also trained to be powerful battlers as they're loaded with lots of powerful moves and raised to the top of their physical and special power. This is further boosted by lots of performance and power enhancing illegal drugs of course," Rico said smugly, chuckling darkly.

"Just… just where did you get that monstrosity!?" Jessie shouted in fear, more unnerved by the second by Rico's description of his wicked Absol. Sure, she was a criminal and a thief but the boundaries that Rico was going into were just absolute evil. Her morals were questionable yes, but they'd never go that far.

"I bought him along with two other slaves from a crime syndicate here in Hoenn that specializes in creating, training and then selling Slave Pokémon. They are very expensive to buy due to how hard it is to raise them into perfect fighting machines. So, while I do think Team Rocket must have hundreds of these, I doubt lousy crooks like you three will have any," Rico said while shaking his head in amusement and chuckling. "Right Absol?" he asked. The Dark-type merely nodded with a blank expression on its face. At least the Fearow didn't look to be like one of those Pokémon as he clearly had a feisty attitude.

"I'm scared guys…" Meowth said, talking a couple steps back and hiding behind James' leg.

"You three should reconsider your careers as criminals if you don't understand Slave Pokémon, they are a basis for all _real_ big name criminals, like me," Rico said, scowling at the Team Rocket trio. His Fearow squeaked angrily in agreement.

"If you said they were expensive, how could you buy them!?" Jessie shouted indignantly. "You're a loner!"

"Normally I'd not answer that, but, I guess I will just so you three dunderheads learn a bit on how to be real criminals like me. I scammed a trio of pathetic novice poachers back in Johto and bought a Tyranitar for a laughable price, and then I sold the Tyranitar here for a real profit. That damn bitch was too hard to control, so I decided not to keep her. And with the money I got from selling her, I used it to purchase three Slave Pokémon and lots of new equipment," Rico explained. "In the world of crime you need to be sharp and strong, and always be updated on the latest news if you want to be at the top of the food chain. I hope you three learned something new on how to be better criminals today from me, and put it to good use in the future." Rico smirked. "But it doesn't mean I'll let you go easy for trying to steal from my efforts. Give me your Arbok, Weezing and Meowth. _Now_," he ordered sharply, his patience obviously wearing thin.

"No!" Jessie shouted back, clearly pissed at the poacher's audacity to order her to surrender her dear Pokémon. "Arbok, use Acid!" she called out and thus beginning what she knew was gonna be one of the most important battles of her life. She did not want to think of the consequences of losing.

Rico shook his head slowly while looking down at the grass. "So feeble of you two to stand up to me like this. It'd be easier on both parties if you just did this the easy way, but I can play rough if you want me to. Absol, use Sucker Punch," he ordered firmly. The virtually mindless Pokémon immediately sprang to action without any objections. His body began glowing in a dark aura of vile energy, preparing to utilize the ultra-fast attack. Before Arbok could even hope to finish preparing to use his own move, Absol dashed towards him at speeds that were difficult to track with the naked eye, his agility greatly increased by the dark aura surrounding him thanks to the fast priority of the move Sucker Punch. Arbok watched in horror as the Absol seemed to cross the large gap of at least a dozen meters between them in less than a second. Completely shocked, the Cobra Pokémon tried speeding up his move but it was futile. He released a bellowing cry of pain as the Absol rammed into him, dark energies blasting at him harshly in a flash of darkness. Arbok was sent back several feet, clearly damaged badly from the first strike.

James gasped in alarm. The Absol had moved so fast he had barely been able to see the movement. "Weezing, quick, use Sludge Bomb!" he ordered hastily.

"Sucker Punch that Weezing into oblivion!" Rico ordered with confidence. Absol quickly jumped from Arbok to Weezing, smashing into the levitating Pokémon before he could even start up his Poison-type attack. Weezing screeched in pain at the sheer power behind the dark aura of the Disaster Pokémon's move.

"Arbok, use a Bite attack!" Jessie called out quickly, taking advantage of the fact that the Absol's back was facing her Arbok. Arbok slowly tried to get up, the energy of the Sucker Punch attack still painfully rippling around him. He growled and lunged at the Absol, determined to win this battle.

"Use Psycho Cut against both of them," was Rico's next order. The Absol's scythe began to glow in a pink shade of energy, which materialized into a blade of psychic energy that seemed to at least double the scythe in size, length, and sharpness. The Absol tossed his head to the side in one brutal motion, making a crescent blade of energy fling off of the scythe-like protrusion towards the incoming Arbok. The Poison-type screeched in pain as the energy scythe blasted into him, badly cutting his inner hood and sending him flying backwards into a tree. The Cobra Pokémon crashed into the tree bark with a cry of pain, blood spilling down his hood from the huge cut that now adorned it. He slipped down the trunk in a state of complete unconsciousness.

The Absol turned towards Weezing. "Oh no… Weezing, watch out!" James called out, but it was too late. The Absol lunged at the barely mobile Weezing, smashing his scythe into it and inflicting a painful cut on the larger of the two heads. The Weezing cried in pain as he rolled a couple meters along the grass, gas leaking from the cut in its side, eyes turning to swirls as it fell unconscious.

The Team Rocket duo watched in utter shock as the Absol defeated both of their Pokémon with terrifying ease. It almost reminded them of every time they fought the twerps. "No…" James whispered softly, utterly terrified.

"Fearow, collect Weezing. Absol, get Arbok and the Meowth," Rico ordered. The Absol nodded and went over to the fallen Arbok while Fearow headed for Weezing.

"We won't let you!" Jessie screamed, tears blurring her eyes as she realized what defeat meant. "You are not taking Arbok away!" she yelled as she stepped in the Absol's path.

Rico laughed. "I am. Consider it your punishment for trying to poach a poacher, fellow criminals. I'll teach you guys another very useful tip for being a good criminal. Don't just rely on Pokémon to get all the dirty work done; always have a plan B," he said as he walked to his jeep, reached inside, and pulled out something else. The Team Rocket duo froze in complete fear. In Rico's hands was a _firearm_. It was a long and rectangular rather oddly-shaped and very futuristic-looking automatic firearm. "I don't want to use this against you two, so step aside."

Absol looked at the Meowth, and realizing it'd be easier to get the smaller one first, he lunged at the feline. "Aaaahhhhh!" Meowth screamed in terror as the Absol landed in front of him. "Don't hurt me!" Meowth pleaded pathetically, shivering in horror and whimpering.

The Absol mindlessly proceeded with the order he was given. As Meowth turned to try and run away, the Absol raised a leg and brutally stomped on Meowth's back, making him fall on his face. The Absol pressed his paw against the smaller Pokémon's back harshly, the claws digging painfully and tearing at the Cat Pokémon's flesh.

"Meowth!" Jessie and James cried out at the same time. Both rushed towards him in a desperate attempt to aid him. A terrifyingly deafening loud bang echoed across the forest as Rico fired a single round from his machine gun. Thankfully, it was a warning shot and not a shot-to-kill. Jessie and James fell over on their backs as a very small ripple of dirt blasted upwards about a meter in front of them, signaling where the bullet had hit.

"Stay," Rico ordered mockingly as if they were a pair of Growlithe at their master's mercy. The Absol lowered his head and bit on Meowth's scruff, causing him to scream as the fangs dug into his neck painfully and make a drop of blood trickle down his back. The Disaster Pokémon easily raised the Meowth held in his fangs. The Dark-type walked towards Arbok, the talking Meowth held firmly in his mouth, and lowered his body under the hood of Arbok's upper neck, using it to drag the Cobra Pokémon back towards Rico, not really caring that the Arbok's deep gash was making some blood soak his fur with bright crimson. As Absol collected Arbok and Meowth, Fearow flew towards the unconscious Weezing and gripped the tube-like extension that united the two 'heads' with his talons. With a couple flaps of his great wings, he lifted the Poison Gas Pokémon and carried him over to the Pokémon Poacher.

"No!" Jessie screamed, tears in her eyes as she watched her beloved Arbok being taken away. "Arbok!"

"Nooo!" Jessie cried, tears running down his cheek as he watched his beloved Weezing being taken away as well. "Weezing!"

"Hey! Why does no one cry for me!?" Meowth complained, and then yelped in pain when the Absol tightened his bite, further hurting him as the teeth sank deeper into his flesh. "Ah! Don't eat me!" Meowth begged.

Both Jessie and James ran towards Rico, crying in a last attempt to get their treasured Pokémon back. Rico simply snorted at their display. "This is the most laughable display of desperation I've seen in a long time. And you call yourselves criminals?" he questioned while shaking his head at them. "Absol, deal with them. Use Night Slash," he simply commanded.

Absol opened his mouth and let Meowth fall back to the dirt, and then shook his body slightly to drop the unconscious Arbok on top of the Normal-type, trapping him under the Cobra Pokémon's weight. Absol turned towards the incoming Rocket duo and leaped at them, his scythe lengthening in size as a slick coat of dark energy covered it. Jessie gasped in fright, stopping in her tracks. James bravely threw himself in front of his partner just as the white-furred Pokémon began to strike. James cried out in pain as the Absol sliced him across his chest and sent him flying back towards the still frozen Jessie, making both of them tumble back and land heavily. "Aaaaaahhhh!" Both of them screamed out, but James' scream was clearly more audible as he had taken the brunt of the attack.

Rico smirked and walked towards them, almost feeling sorry for these clowns. He stopped just a couple of feet away from them, looming over them as he pointed his automatic firearm ominously at the two. "Now pay attention," Rico spat sharply. Both Team Rocket agents looked at him quietly as tears streamed down their cheeks. "You two are a pathetic example of criminals. I thought Team Rocket would field better agents... Anyway, consider this advice from a _real_ professional criminal. Your Pokémon are weak, and look at you! You're crying like a pack of babies just because you're being mugged, really pathetic. You two are poor excuses of criminals. I bet you couldn't steal a single Pokémon from a trainer if you tried," Rico taunted as he kept the barrel of his machine gun trained on them. Both Jessie and James winced as that was particularly true.

"Give us Arbok and Weezing!" James pleaded pitifully, holding his arm across the long, deep cut across the center of his chest in an attempt to stem the bleeding, the white arm sleeve of his uniform already starting to turn an ugly shade of crimson around the edges. "And Meowth! We're sorry for trying to steal your Ekans! Don't take them!" he begged, swallowing his pride and outright begging for his beloved partners to not be taken away.

"Not a chance, sore loser. You meddled in my business first, you should have considered the consequences. If you want to become real criminals like me, man up and stop crying, get a couple of powerful Slave Pokémon, and also…" Rico patted his machine gun. "Get a gun. Stop being whiny crybabies and start using Slave Pokémon and guns without mercy and you're good to go as real rotten bad guys like me." Rico pointed his gun at the Team Rocket duo, making them freeze in horror.

"Don't kill us!" Jessie cried out, horrified.

"Normally I do kill people I poach from. After all, as the old pirate saying goes 'dead men tell no tales' and it really applies well. Someone dead can't give the police information about me, but I'll let you two live because you are fellow criminals. Take heed on my advice to be real criminals, you pair of hopeless pussies." Rico turned around and walked back to his jeep. "Absol, let's go." The Disaster Pokémon nodded and followed his master.

Jessie and James could only watch and cry, utterly helpless, as Rico loaded Arbok, Weezing and Meowth onto one of his cage trailers, secured it and the trailer full of Ekans to his jeep, and then drove away without giving a look back. They could only watch in despair as their two beloved life partners and Meowth were taken away.

"No…" Jessie said in a panicked tone of voice, pain and grief striking her heart harshly as a new wave of tears welled up in her eyes. "Arbok…" she muttered, looking down at the ground. "Arbok…" she sobbed. "ARBOK!" She finally screamed, openly crying. It was too much; the pain was unbearable, as was the thought of never seeing Arbok ever again. At the thought of losing a friend forever.

"Weezing… brother!" James cried as well, punching the ground several times. "No! No!" he yelled over and over again, tears spilling down his eyes. It was excruciating, the feeling of helplessness against such a powerful enemy.

Jessie sobbed, trying to hold back the seemingly endless tears. "Why? It's not fair! Arbok was my Pokémon… my friend! My first and true friend! My beloved Pokémon! No!" She cried again, wailing loudly. "I got him when…" she sobbed. "When he was just a little Ekans… it was a… a wonderful birthday present… Ekans… My Arbok…" She cried, tears running down her cheeks and soaking her white team Rocket uniform. "Even Meowth… he was our friend… this is not fair! No!" Her heart clenched in suffering as many memories of her and her Arbok came to her mind.

"Weezing…" James muttered, shocked and tearful. He found it hard to think of anything else, the realization that he may never see Weezing ever again slowly coming to him. "I got him when he was just a little Koffing… a Christmas present… Koffing… Weezing… No!" He burst into tears again, not caring at the fact he had a rather long cut on his chest from the Absol's attack. That pain was nothing to what he felt tearing at his heart, that his most cherished friend had been so ruthlessly stolen. "Meowth too… why all three!?" he cried out. He too went down memory lane, of all the good moments with Weezing and Meowth.

Jessie looked at James, her face reddened and her eyes wet and red from the tears. "James… what are we going to do now…" she said in a frightened voice. It was seemingly over. She couldn't think past the pain she felt at the loss of her partner, it was like nothing else mattered. A bright flash suddenly spooked the two as Wobbuffet released himself from his Pokéball, and to Jessie's surprise… he hugged her. Wobbuffet hugged Jessie tightly and whispered soothing words to her that she could not understands due to the language barrier, but she knew he was comforting her. "Wobbuffet…" Jessie whispered, sniffing. The Psychic-type nuzzled and hugged her comfortingly, letting her know he was there for her.

James whimpered, sobbing. "I don't know! I don't know what we can do! All we have left is your Wobbuffet, we can't fight him… It can't end like this… Weezing… Arbok… Meowth, we can't be separated like this!" he lamented. "Not by a robbery… not by such a cruel thing! We, Team Rocket, are a team and we'll stick together until the very end!" It was hard to believe for James. He had always lived carefree and took his friendship with his Pokémon for granted, like nothing could ever go wrong. Now that he was the victim of such a cruel separation, he sobbed. It was so painful, far more painful than his injury.

Jessie cried, hugging James tightly. "I know! But we can't do a thing!" Both Team Rocket agents sobbed their pain against each other, trying to seek what little comfort there could be with each other's presences. They had been together in everything, both the good times and the bad, and now in a time of grief they knew they needed each other the most.

James pulled away slightly. "We… we can get a mecha! And try to rescue them…" he suggested, trying to calm the pain and suffering inside him by looking to the slimmest and faintest glimmer of hope he could find to alleviate the situation.

Jessie shook her head. "No… it'd take a couple of days to get a new robot… by that time we'd have lost that poacher…" she whimpered. "This… really is the goodbye of our friends… it… really is…" She burst out crying harder. Why did her life always end in misery?

"It's so cruel… we've been trying to steal one measly Pikachu for two years, and instead it's us who get our Pokémon stolen in a day, no fair!" James screamed, tears pouring down openly. He had always tried to steal Pokémon, but he had never realized the horrible pain of those who were on the receiving end of it. Did he really want to continue stealing Pokémon? Knowing now, first hand, how painful such a thing was?

Both Team Rocket agents paused. "One measly Pikachu…" both repeated at the same time. "The twerps!" they said at the same time, looking at each other with a glimmer of hope shining in their tearful eyes. That was it, the only possible thing they could hold onto for hope, the only thing that could save their friends from a terrible fate. Not everything was lost. Not yet.

"They could help us!" James said, sniffing to try and control his crying. Thinking of Ash and his group helping them out did alleviate the agony, replacing it with hope.

"I don't know… would they? We've tried to steal their Pokémon for so long," Jessie said sadly, lost in despair and anguish for her Pokémon. "I don't think they'd help us… they must hate us."

"It's our only hope, they're the good guys, they've gotta help us!" James said optimistically, wiping his face with his sleeve. He stood up and offered Jessie a hand, still using his other arm to keep pressure against the wound on his chest in an attempt to staunch the blood flow, his uniform was stained red, clearly visible against the white, he hoped it'd clot soon so it doesn't become more dangerous. "Come on Jess," he said affectionately, trying to cheer her up slightly. "Staying here crying won't get Arbok, Weezing and Meowth back."

Jessie looked up at him, eyes blurry with tears, but she nevertheless nodded. Agreeing with his logic, she took the hand and let him pull her up. James winced from the stab of pain that brought from his cut, but he did his best to ignore it. All that mattered now was getting their friends back.

* * *

><p><strong>Author Notes:<strong> For those of you who are wondering, Rico's firearm is a FN-P90 Submachine gun. Before you ask, yes, that _was_ in the actual anime. Interesting huh? Though, for some odd reason, despite having the Submachine gun in hand, Rico didn't get the chance to fire it a single time throughout the entire episode. Very odd isn't it?

I decided to use mostly the same layout as the anime episode to re-introduce Brock. Went for the easy one xD Well, I hope this chapter pleases those fans who liked Taillow/Swellow, he always came off in the anime (At least in his debuting episode) as a bullish brat. But, he made his appearance! As you all can guess, I've sort of replaced him in Ash's Hoenn party with Pidgeot.

**Now, I'll answer a couple questions I'm constantly asked through PMs or Reviews. **

_**Will Ash have the same party as the anime**_**?** The answer is no, Ash will **not** have the same Pokémon party as the anime. The only Pokémon he'll share with the anime is Treecko. I have his party all set up and planned. I hope that what I have envisioned pleases you all. Just to keep you with an **O_O** feeling, _*smirks*_ Ash's Hoenn-ANCFA party will include a _Unova Gen 5 Pokémon_, who? Good luck guessing! :D And as a note, I can now understand why the Producers of the anime reset Ash's party completely every region back to just Pikachu… finding ways to fit the new Pokémon when his party is already completely full is _hard. _It took me a while just to find out how to replace and add the new members.

_**Will Ash capture more Legendaries? **_The answer is no. Ash will not catch more Legendary Pokémon. But, through the course of the story, nearly **all** Legendaries will make appearances. Some of them will even appear constantly, _very constantly_. So there's no need to give Ash more. As ANCFA progresses, it will also start to dwell heavily into the Life of Legendaries.

_**Who is Latias and Latios' mother and what will their names be? **_I'm sorry, but I will not answer this yet. It is part of a big plot thing, so you'll have to wait for it to come to get an actual answer.

That's all for now. Thanks for all the support and feedback.


	9. New Pokémon, New Friend And New Trainer

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Pokémon.

"Speech"

_'Thoughts'_

_"Telepathy" _

**Author Notes:** Here it is… chapter 9! Sorry for the delay, university had me rather busy lately.

Also, I have an 'official' **DeviantArt** page now. It'll be easier to post status updates and comments for my readers there. I won't publish the Fanfic itself there, but the DA page will be useful for miscellaneous side information for the Fanfic and for a more public touch with readers. My username there is "**FF-ARCY.**" The link to it is on my profile page.

**Chapter 9 – New Pokémon, New Friend and New Trainer**

* * *

><p>It was a cool and silent night in the Petalburg Woods, dimly illuminated by the soft and gentle silvery moonlight. Occasionally the sounds of squeaks, chirps and other cries originating from the local Pokémon that made their homes in the forest broke the peaceful silence momentarily before the eerie quietness of the night settled back into the environment.<p>

Located in a rather sizable clearing adjacent to the dirt road running through the forest was a large human-built structure. It was a large spherical metallic silver-colored construction with a large cream-colored dome adorning the rooftop. Just above the main door was a large red-colored 'P' painted on the surface of the dome, signifying it as a Pokémon Center. The building was devoid of any activity at this time at night. Most of the structure was dark, save for a pair of exterior lights and the main reception lights that were still on to provide a sufficient source of illumination. This particular Pokémon Center was situated in the middle of Petalburg woods to provide necessary assistance and aid to those that had just started their adventures as Pokémon Trainers, as the route that ran through the forest was a path frequented by beginners.

The almost uneventful stillness that had befallen the clearing and night was interrupted as the bushes next to the Pokémon Center rustled softly, a small Pokémon appearing from them. Smeargle poked her head out of the leafy cover the bush provided. She looked around inquisitively and examined the view that greeted her cautiously, and after seeing that there was no danger and that everything was quiet, her eyes sparkled joyously. She looked at the manmade structure that she had finally found. If her memory served her correctly, this was where that group of nice humans and Pokémon that had so kindly helped her were heading to; at least, it was what they had mentioned before they went on their own way.

After sharing a tasty meal and spending a rather carefree afternoon with them, she had returned to the forest to resume her regular life, or at least that's what she thought would happen. To her surprise, she found her mind had started heavily pondering a rather tempting option ever since she had left the friendly and welcoming group. Even after being let out of the Pokémon Trainer's Academy, she had never exactly found a stable home within the woodland that satisfied her or made her happy. The presence of so many hostile and troublesome Pokémon, like the highly aggressive Taillow flock she despised so much, had certainly made her decide it was a better idea to perhaps move to another place of habitation. It was clear to the Painter Pokémon that that place was not going to be Petalburg woods.

The problem was that she had no idea where to go or how to navigate around the region since the Normal-type knew she was extremely distant from her original home in the Johto Region. It was a dangerous decision to travel through the unfamiliar region without knowing what awaited her on the path or where she should go. However, a new solution was presented right there for her, and that was the human girl who had proven herself to be a good friend and also a talented artist. After pondering on the choice for several restless hours, the Pokémon finally decided that she'd go with the human group. _'I'd get peaceful art, free food, good friends, protection, and a chance to travel and get away from this forest. What do I have to lose?'_ she thought to herself happily, steeling her decision with a positive nod. _'Well, of course, if they allow it. But they're trainers, so they'd like a new Pokémon to complement them, right?' _she added as an afterthought to further convince herself.

Smeargle carefully walked towards the Pokémon Center, blinking as she looked up at the sizable building. She leaned down and sniffed at the ground, her sensitive nose easily picking up the scents of the particular group she wanted to find. She walked towards the treatment center while following the scent and after a couple minutes of examining the area, she began to round the building while trying to find a point of entry or an area that would lead her to the origins of their scents.

"Right there!" she squealed happily when she came across a window that had their scent firmly imprinted on it. She examined the window closely; it was a couple feet above the ground and had a very slim ledge underneath it which she hoped she could use. Smeargle took aim and hopped upwards towards the ledge, landing right on it and barely managing to retain her balance on the slim surface. After she managed to stabilize herself on the window sill, she surveyed the interior of the room.

The room was pitch-dark, but the soft glow of the moonlight barely allowed her to make out the shapes of the sleeping Latias and Latios in the middle of the floor, laid out on what seemed to be a large blanket. Aside from them, she could make out a couple of outlines on the sides of the room, but nothing too clearly. She pushed at the window and tried to open it, but it didn't budge, causing her to pout disappointingly. Much to the Pokémon's dismay, the action of trying to force the window open made her foot paws slip. "Ah, ah!" Smeargle yipped as she lost her balance and started falling backwards. As she desperately attempted to grab anything to support herself, she managed to get a slight grip on the window's frame, but it didn't work and she fell. She landed roughly in the dirt with a rather heavy thud, letting out a pained yelp. "Ow," the Painter Pokémon murmured as she winced, but her eyes lit up in contentment when she looked up. The window had opened_. 'Not the most dignified way of opening a window I'll admit, but eh, I'll take it,'_ she thought cheerfully to herself.

Smeargle leaped up once more and without the window impeding her this time, she easily climbed into the room. She looked around silently, noting that thankfully the noise she had stirred up while trying to open the window hadn't woken anyone up. With the moonlight behind her dimly illuminating the room and now with her inside it, she was able to analyze the features of everyone. The younger male trainer whom she recalled was named Ash as well as his Pikachu were sleeping on the bottom of a bunk bed, while the older one that had healed her, whom she remembered was named Brock, was sleeping on the top. On the other side of the room in a single bed the object of her interest, Bianca, was sleeping peacefully. Smeargle noticed that her bag was positioned on the floor, leaned on one of the bed's posts. She slowly tiptoed her way towards it, feeling pleased that she hadn't woken anyone in her little stunt.

"Hello there," Latias whispered in a barely audible voice, her action making Smeargle yelp and leap up in fright. This prompted Smeargle to quickly silence herself as the Pokémon's paws went to her mouth. The Dragon/Psychic-type couldn't help but giggle quietly at the frightened Painter Pokémon as she shook her head in amusement. This brought some old although not-very-good memories as the red eon dragoness remembered that faithful night at Alto Mare, when Latios had been kidnapped; she had entered Ash's Pokémon Center room through the window, much like how Smeargle just did.

"Oh… uh… hello… uh, miss Legendary Pokémon… Latias! Uh…" Smeargle stammered in a low tone of voice, as she was nervous and wasn't sure of what to say in the _very _awkward situation she had been caught in by the dragoness.

Latias shook her head once, a soft smile present on her gentle-looking visage. "It's okay. Don't worry, I'm not mad or anything. Well, maybe a little grumpy about being woken up in the middle of the night, but…" she yawned softly. "What's with the nightly visit?" she asked sleepily.

"It's just… that I…" Smeargle began shyly. "Sorry?" she stammered uneasily, still keeping her voice as quiet as possible.

Latias slowly levitated, very careful not to wake up her brother, who was still soundly sleeping. She knew very well that both of them were very light sleepers. The red dragoness floated closer to Smeargle, getting in the rays of moonlight that came through the window and thus giving Smeargle a much better view of her. "Well?" Latias pressed, stopping a couple feet from the Painter Pokémon. Her appearance was anything but threatening, but her voice was firm as she was curious to know why the Smeargle was there.

Smeargle frowned. "Okay, long story short… basically, I'm tired of living in the forest. I guess I got too accustomed to human care back at the Pokémon Trainer Academy, so I decided to come along with you guys, especially with Bianca," Smeargle whispered, explaining her situation as briefly as she could. "Of course… if it's possible to begin with," she added as a means of proving that she wasn't trying to force them to accept her.

Latias nodded once, humming in thought at the Smeargle's explanation. "Oh, well that's most certainly interesting," she admitted. "Why did you come in the middle of the night though? Why not wait until sunrise?" the Eon Pokémon asked.

Smeargle frowned sadly at her question. "I didn't know when you'd leave this place and I feared I might lose you in the morning if I didn't come as soon as possible, so this was my best bet," she answered quietly.

"Ah," Latias said simply, accepting her explanation. "Well, we can't make any decisions with everyone sleeping. Why don't you just reside with us here and we'll decide in the morning?" she suggested while stifling a yawn, her tone sleepy and tired.

Smeargle nodded, agreeing to her point. "Yeah…" She looked towards Bianca's bag. Slowly, she opened it and pulled out a sketchbook. She opened it with a sense of curiosity, hoping she'd see the drawings inside in the moonlight and frowned; it was impossible to make out the pictures in the darkness with the moonlight providing meager illumination. Then, Smeargle blinked in surprise as a sudden red and white glow began to filter through the room, letting her see the drawings a bit better.

Latias smiled kindly at the Normal-type. "Is that better?" she asked in a whisper, floating behind Smeargle and letting her red and white body produce a dim glow in the fashion of a nightlight.

"I didn't know you had the ability to glow in the dark," Smeargle commented with amazement. She then paused when she gave a bit more thought to her earlier statement. "Scratch that, more like… I don't know anything about you," she added, clearly feeling embarrassed.

Latias stifled a giggle. "I can glow in the dark. In fact, both my brother and I can glow very strongly in the dark, easily enough to make this room seem like it was daytime. Of course, I'm keeping it this dim so it doesn't wake up anyone." Occasionally, Latias spared glances to Pikachu and Latios, as she knew she could wake them up at any possible second given their natures of light sleepers.

Smeargle nodded, and proceeded to leaf through Bianca's sketchbook, going through some of the drawings and marveling at them, enjoying the sheer quality and effort the artistic girl had placed in the creation of each and every one of them. "I… like them," she whispered, a smile plastered on her face.

Latias smirked at the Normal-type. "Bianca's a dedicated artist. Now, let's go to sleep. I can sense you are very tired yourself," she said calmly, snatching Bianca's sketchbook from Smeargle's hand-like paws and then putting it carefully back inside its owner's bag.

Smeargle sighed in dismay. As much as she'd love to continue examining the drawings further, she agreed with the dragoness, and when daytime came in the morning, further details could be discussed with the group. The Painter Pokémon turned to look at Latias just as she ceased glowing. "Well, I looked for you guys all night… so yes… I am," she admitted, trying to stifle a yawn herself, her eyelids feeling heavy and drooping down.

Latias nodded. "Very well," she whispered in a kindly tone. She focused her attention at the window and closed it with her mental powers. "Good night," she told the Painter Pokémon.

Smeargle nodded and made her way to the wall where the window was and curled up, closing her eyes to catch some sleep herself. Latias looked at her for a couple of seconds and then returned to Latios' side. She curled up beside the much larger dragon, hiding under his wing and sliding her neck under his. With her curled up with her brother, going back to sleep was a rather effortless action.

…

The next day…

"Ash, wake up! We're going to be late!" Pikachu yelled boisterously, shaking Ash's head roughly with his paws in an attempt to wake up the sleeping trainer.

Ash's face wrinkled in annoyance as he shifted to his side. "…Five more minutes, Mom…" he mumbled sleepily, shoving Pikachu off the bed with a quick push of his arm before falling straight back to sleep.

"Hey!" Pikachu shouted in irritation as he landed painfully on the floor next to the bed. He growled as his cheeks began to sparkle with electricity. It was time for plan B and most definitely his favorite one. "I'll-"

"Wait, my turn," Latios interrupted him, grinning deviously. His eyes glowed as he began to exert his formidable mental powers. He turned the bathroom's faucet on, accumulated some water in a large sphere held together by his mind, and then proceeded to close the tap. The bathroom door swung open as the orb of water levitated out of it. Trying to hold his laughter back, he flung the orb of water straight at Ash's face.

"Aaaahh!" Ash screamed in surprise as the water splashed all over him and woke him up instantly. He jolted straight up from his sleep violently while shaking his head rapidly as his face and hair were soaked by Latios' antic. "Hey! I was having a nice dream!" he complained, glaring at his Pokémon.

Latios chuckled with delight, satisfied with his tactic of getting Ash out of bed. "Well, I didn't know dreaming about winning some lame food contest was supposed to be a nice dream of any sorts," he commented sarcastically, a little amused at Ash's protest.

Pikachu hummed as he gave it some thought. "So what was he eating?" he asked inquisitively.

"Cookies," Latios answered, rolling his eyes. "Odd pick, isn't it?" he asked, barely stifling a giggle. Pikachu nodded in agreement with the Eon Pokémon, also holding back giggles in the process. "This never gets old."

Ash shook his head rapidly to clear the sleepiness out of him and shake off the water. He grabbed his blanket and proceeded to rub his face dry. "What time is it?" he asked his Pokémon.

"Ten in the morning, Ash," Latios answered his trainer. Ash opened his mouth to speak, but was unable to utter out a single word as the Dragon/Psychic-type interrupted him. "No Ash, ten in the morning is by no means 'early,' so don't complain," he added sharply. Ash pouted and closed his mouth in response.

Pikachu turned to look at the door of their room. "Come to the lobby, Bianca's got a new friend that you'd probably like to meet," he informed him, smiling.

Ash blinked in surprise. "Oh? What do you mean?" he asked, wondering what the Electric-type meant with that statement.

"You'll see," Pikachu answered back as he turned around and then ran out the door.

Latios nodded. "Don't be late, Ash. We'll all be waiting for you downstairs," he said as he flew out the window to round the Pokémon Center and enter through the main door, as the hallway was too small to accommodate his size. Ash sighed tiresomely and leaned back on the bed, looking up at the roof while wondering what was going on. Slowly, his eyes began to slip closed as his mind inevitably began to shut down once more in slumber. _"…Ash! This is serious! Get down here immediately!" _Latios yelled harshly in his mind.

"Aaahh! Okay, okay, I'm up!" Ash shot back as he quickly leapt out of bed, his mind jarred slightly from Latios's message. He went to the bathroom to wash his face to rid himself of the last vestiges of sleepiness. Once he was fully awake, he proceeded back to the bed and sat on the edge so he could quickly put on his sneakers and get dressed. Once he was ready, he stood up, grabbed his backpack and any other belongings that were his, and proceeded to make his way out the room and towards the reception desk.

"Good morning, Ash," Brock greeted him as the young trainer got to the Pokémon Center's reception. "I got to say, I missed your constant silly problems when it came to waking up," the older breeder mused nostalgically as he shook his head in enjoyment.

"Ha ha ha, very funny Brock," Ash said in a playfully sarcastic manner, rolling his eyes. "Hello to you too and good morning everyone," he said, smiling at his friends. They all greeted him back with warm gestures. "So, who's the surprise friend here?" he asked curiously.

"We got a late night visit," Latias answered casually. "And Bianca has a new Pokémon."

Ash's eyes widened in surprise. "Wow, how did that happen?" he asked, wondering when Bianca had the time to get a new Pokémon seeing as they had all been sleeping, and it wasn't that late in the morning for her to get one while he slept.

"Her new Pokémon got in through the window in the middle of the night," Pikachu answered. "Which is quite weird if you ask me," he added.

Ash smiled cheerfully. "Congratulations, Bianca!" he beamed excitedly at the prospect of a new friend joining them. "So, who is it?" he asked the girl with a cheerful voice.

The young artist smiled softly at her friend's enthusiasm. "You'll see Ash, and thanks for the praise. I'm very happy about it," she said as she leaned over the counter, waiting for Nurse Joy to come out.

After five or so minutes, the Pokémon nurse came out from the hallway behind the counter while pushing a small cart, on top of which was Smeargle. "There we go, Bianca. Your Smeargle is okay. While not in the most perfect state of health due to some minor details but aside from that, she is mostly okay," Nurse Joy informed the group kindly. She rounded the counter, stopping the cart just in front of Bianca.

Bianca smiled, reached forward and scratched behind Smeargle's floppy ears, eliciting soft noises of pleasure from the Pokémon. "That's good to know," she said softly.

"I already gave her all that she needed to be in optimal shape," Nurse Joy informed them. She motioned for Smeargle to jump down from the cart, which the Painter Pokémon complied with immediately. Once Smeargle was off, the Pokémon nurse turned and pushed the cart back behind the counter and into the small hallway. A few seconds later she returned to the counter and typed some details on the computer that was positioned on the reception desk. "Okay, I'm done with your registration, Bianca."

Bianca grinned. "Thanks!" she said gratefully. Smeargle blinked up at her while Ash stared wide eyed at her with surprise that she, of all people, was now an official Pokémon trainer.

Nurse Joy nodded and motioned Bianca to come towards the counter. The young artist complied and Nurse Joy pointed towards the monitor. "Check your information to make sure it's all correct," she instructed while tilting the monitor to make it a bit clearer for Bianca to see.

Bianca leaned over the counter and began examining her information. "Bianca… eighteen years old… born in Alto Mare…," she mumbled as she began to read the personal information registered on her profile. After reading over several more lines she nodded. "Yes, it's all correct."

Nurse Joy nodded in confirmation and rapidly typed a few more details on the keyboard. A couple of seconds later, the sounds of a printer starting up began to echo for a couple of moments. Nurse Joy leaned down and picked up a small piece of paper, which she handed to Bianca. "There, all finished. That's your Pokémon Trainer ID number, you've been registered. Make sure to memorize it."

Bianca smiled as she checked the number printed on the paper. Nodding once, she stored the paper inside her bag. "Thank you, Nurse Joy."

Nurse Joy handed her a pair of standard Pokéballs. "This is a small gift from me. One's for Smeargle and the other is a spare; if you want more you'll have to buy them. They're available at most Pokémarts," the Pokémon nurse explained kindheartedly.

"Thanks again," Bianca returned appreciatively, taking the two items into her hands. She looked down at the devices for a few moments, examining the two red and white spheres in the palms of her hands.

"You guys said that Smeargle came to us late last night. Did she really do that?" Ash asked, looking down at the small Painter Pokémon and then at Bianca, wanting more details on the rather curious matter.

"Yeah, when I woke up Smeargle was in the room already. Latias told me that she came in last night through the window. It appears she really liked us from yesterday's meeting, so she decided to come with us, well, me in particular," Bianca answered the young trainer. "We spent the last hour talking and getting to know each other a little better."

"I guess that's very lucky of you, Bianca, and a good way to make a new friend," Ash commented in amusement. "Pokémon are usually captured through long hard battles."

Pikachu rolled his eyes at the absurdity of his trainer's statement. "Ash, most of the Pokémon you've captured are either befriended or raised, not captured in an outright battle. And the few times you capture a Pokémon through a battle it's because you befriended him or her before the battle, hence why they accepted the battle in the first place."

Ash sighed and facepalmed. "Yeah, I know. But it's not like it's a bad thing!" he protested with agitation.

Latios hummed, and then nodded. _"I have to agree there. I'd prefer to go with a trainer that I became friends with, like you Ash, than one whom I didn't like and just captured me by sheer force."_

Bianca giggled with amusement. "Oh, Ash," she said while shaking her head slightly. "Well, it seems like I follow the group's customs very well then," she joked while holding back a laugh. "Anyway, ready for this Smeargle?" she asked, looking down at the Painter Pokémon. Smeargle nodded in confirmation once. Bianca reached down and tapped the Pokéball to Smeargle's head. The Painter Pokémon began to glow and dematerialized into red-colored particles of light as she was sucked into the Pokéball in a bright red flash of light. The Pokéball shook a few times and then beeped; signaling that Smeargle had been captured without resistance. "I'd never have thought in a thousand years that I'd be a Pokémon trainer," Bianca admitted with a soft and spaced-out voice. Of all the things she thought that she would be, she was now a trainer.

Brock smiled at her, patting her shoulder as a sign of friendship. "Well, you are one now. Congratulations, Bianca," he said kindly.

Ash pouted. "What? No awesome pose and line?" he asked, urging her on. "I love doing that."

"I'm not going to do that, Ash," Bianca said flatly, narrowing her eyes. Ash scratched the back of his head, feeling slightly embarrassed.

"_Well, congratulations for having a new Pokémon, Bianca,"_ Latias said cheerfully, grinning widely.

Bianca let out a soft sigh. "I have no idea what to do, though…" she said uneasily. "I never really placed much thought in regards to becoming a trainer, so I'm in the dark on this one."

"Think you'll try out the gyms and the League?" Ash asked curiously, wondering if he had to share their time in gym battles with her.

Bianca shook her head before explaining her original intention on registering. "No, I'm not really interested at all in that. I just registered so I could carry Smeargle around without bothering you or Brock with your team slots."

"We'll assist you anyway in the art of raising a Pokémon," Brock told her, smiling with reassurance. "We'll help you raise her and be a trainer."

"Thanks. I definitely appreciate the help, guys," Bianca said, feeling very glad to have her friends' support in this new responsibility she had taken on.

"So, when do we leave for the next gym?" Ash asked, turning his attention to Brock. "Rustboro City, right?"

Brock pulled out a map from his bag, examined it for a few seconds, and then nodded in confirmation. "There's an easy road towards Rustboro from here, so yep, we'll head that way. But first I suggest we have a meal. We can't travel on an empty stomach, after all!" Brock advised before he folded up the map and stored it back in his bag.

Ash grinned happily. "I definitely agree to the meal," he spoke up with eagerness.

Pikachu snickered at his remark. "Of course you do. All you think about is filling up your stomach," he taunted snidely. Ash promptly ignored him, much to the Electric-type's amusement.

Latios chuckled. _"And despite that, Ash started this journey with zero food provisions,"_ he commented, earning more stony silence from his trainer. Brock shook his head once in amusement, thinking about how much he missed all this.

Bianca clicked the Pokéball, releasing Smeargle from it. "Welcome back," she said, leaning down to pet Smeargle. The canine-like Pokémon pressed into the delicate touch fondly.

Ash grabbed three Pokéballs and released the remainder of his team. "Hey guys, meet our new friend, Bianca's new Pokémon!" he called out as he dropped the three Pokéballs. The rest of his team appeared in bright white flashes.

Larvitar, Phanpy, and Pidgeot glanced at Smeargle the second they had been released from their Pokéballs. "Well, technically we already met her," Pidgeot said, giggling softly.

Ash rolled his eyes at her statement "Yes, but back in the forest it was just us helping her. Now she'll actually travel with us, isn't that nice?" he said cheerily, the joy of having a new friend clearly present in his hyperactive attitude.

Pidgeot nodded in response and then turned to look at Smeargle. "Pleasure to have you aboard the group, Smeargle," she greeted the female Painter Pokémon with a pleasant voice.

Phanpy squealed happily. "Yay! Yay! New friend! New friend!" He skipped over to Smeargle and nuzzled her chest with his head and trunk, making sure not to do so too roughly as to accidentally push his new friend over. "I'm Phanpy! New friend! New friend!" he kept repeating over and over happily as he ran in circles around the confused Normal-type.

Larvitar shook his head in amusement, but nonetheless also greeted the Painter Pokémon. "Nice to have you join us," the Rock/Ground-type greeted.

"Uh, hello," Smeargle responded uneasily, taking a step back from the overeager child Pokémon. "Nice to meet you too," she added. The Ground-type squealed back happily.

Brock stared at the scene, holding back chuckles. "They get along well. Guess your Smeargle's making friends fast," he commented.

"Yes, seems that way," Bianca agreed with a soft smile.

As the group kept celebrating the inclusion of a new traveling companion, the front doors of the Pokémon Center slid open, and Nurse Joy turned to see who it was. When she saw that one of the people who entered had a large bloodstain on his shirt, she gasped in horror. "Oh, my!" Nurse Joy exclaimed.

Ash and his group of friends turned to see what was going on, and they too gasped when they saw Team Rocket standing at the door. "Team Rocket!? Not you three again!" Ash yelled, glaring at them and preparing for the inevitable scuffle.

Latios blinked blankly in a state of mixed confusion. _"I find it very odd that they didn't enter through the roof with a robot, or through the wall, or simply smash their way in… or from underneath the floor. I mean, they actually used the front door for once!?"_ he asked, clearly shocked at Team Rocket's oddly… _normal_ way of appearing before them.

Brock winced. "Oh my, they look terrible," he said, examining the poor condition of the two villains. "And where is Meowth?" he wondered curiously. It was a strange sight to see that the talkative Scratch Cat Pokémon was nowhere near any of the two Rocket operatives.

Jessie panted heavily as she tried to regain her lost breath. She had bags under her eyes from the lack of sleep and exhaustion was clearly visible on her; her normally clean white uniform was saggy and dirty. "Prepare for an earnest plea of help…" Jessie said tiredly, her voice wracked with pain.

James gasped for oxygen, leaning on the door's frame for support. Like Jessie, his Team Rocket uniform was torn up and filthy from dirt and dust. His shirt was also stained with blood, the result of a nasty-looking wound slashed across the middle of his chest that was slightly visible through the large tear in the man's shirt, and his face looked extremely exhausted and rather pale from the lack of sleep and the excess effort used to get to the Pokémon Center. "Make sure… to hear us yelp," he continued tiredly.

"To ask help from our greatest enemy," Jesse began, her eyes half lidded as she struggled to remain standing.

"To hopefully forget our mutual enmity," James continued, dropping to his knees while still using the door's frame for support.

"To denounce the evils of thieves who aren't us," Jessie said, stifling a cry of pain at the horrible memory of her beloved Pokémon being forcefully seized from her.

"To beg of you… please help us!" James pleaded with a desperate and loud voice.

"Team Rocket, swallowing our pride at the speed of light," Jessie said, wincing regretfully and with shame at saying that line.

"We're surrendering now, help us win the fight," James finished, sniffing tears as he remembered there was no Meowth to end the motto anymore. The wind whistled by hauntingly, making a tumbleweed roll behind the two beaten-up thieves, echoing the lack of the motto's ending painfully. James swayed dizzily for a few seconds and then fainted, crashing into the floor harshly with a loud thud.

Ash gasped. While it was good that there wasn't going to be any fighting or an attempt to steal his Pokémon, he wasn't particularly glad about what he was seeing. "What happened?!" he asked, worried about the obviously horrible condition the two were in.

Jessie glared at him with bloodshot pupils. "Didn't you pay attention, twerp!? It was all in the motto!" she yelled angrily, clearly irritated.

Ash winced and took a step back. "Hey, sorry! It's not like your mottos are good for saying anything anyway," he argued, crossing his arms in annoyance.

Latias cringed at the emotions she felt coming off from the two thanks to her empathy. The state they were in was absolutely horrifying; it almost made her sniff. _"Whatever happened, it was terrible," _she said, shaking her head to try and dissipate it.

Nurse Joy turned to look at her Chansey assistant. "Bring the first aid kit for humans, Chansey," she said sharply. The plump pink Pokémon nodded and immediately rushed away to gather the necessary medical supplies.

Ash blinked before turning to Nurse Joy. "You have a medical kit for humans? I thought Pokémon Centers only treated Pokémon," he queried in confusion.

"Well, that's usually only in Pokémon Centers that are away from cities or towns. Nurse Joys there are trained in basic human first aid, just in case a trainer is wounded on the road or while traveling. This way, we can provide basic aid until emergency services arrive from the nearest city," Nurse Joy explained as she walked over to James. "Do you know these people?"

"Sadly, I do, but for the wrong reasons," Ash answered with a disheartened frown. "I have no idea why they're so beat up, though."

"Once again, it was in the motto, darn it! Didn't you pay attention!?" Jessie yelled at him again, making Ash leap up in fright. "We need your help, twerps! Please!" she yelled desperately.

Ash blinked in confusion at her request. "You do?"

"Yes!" Jessie exclaimed. She struggled over to the group while Nurse Joy and her Chansey worked on cleaning James's wounds as well as bandaging them up. James had suffered a large cut, but fortunately it was nothing potentially fatal. Jessie sighed tiringly. "We got badly out-crooked. Some green-haired idiot with a really bad attitude and temper stole our Pokémon… we lost Arbok, Weezing… and even Meowth!" Jessie continued, looking down in an effort to stop the tears forming in her eyes.

Ash gasped. "That's horrible!" he spoke, clearly shocked. "No one should ever have their Pokémon stolen, it's simply terrible!"

Bianca snorted at the irony. "Serves them right for trying to steal ours," she said off-handedly, not really impressed or interested in aiding Jessie. The female Team Rocket operative glared venomously at her, but the girl from Alto Mare couldn't care less.

"So, let me guess, you want us to go and find whoever stole your Pokémon and get them back for you?" Brock guessed, finishing for Jessie.

Jessie nodded once. "Pretty much," she answered simply, drawing quick breaths to recover from all the strain her body had taken recently.

"Of course we will!" Ash said immediately, nodding. Jessie smiled as a glimmer of hope lit up again in her, glad that the twerp she had chased and annoyed all these years was actually going to help her.

"No, we won't," Bianca interrupted with tense disagreement, putting her hands on her hips. "Why should we help them after all the trouble they put us through? Don't forget, they destroyed the last gym you battled in, Ash."

Ash frowned sadly, not happy with what she said. "But Bianca… we need to help…"

Brock looked at the condition Jessie and James were in, and sighed. "I'm a bit torn. I'm not sure if I really want to help or not…I mean, they've given us a lot of trouble in the past, but…"

Pikachu shrugged, clearly not interested one bit. "Meh, I don't particularly care. Let's let them cry and wallow in the own suffering, I've had enough stress from them trying to capture me that I don't want to help them. Give me one good reason why we should help these troublesome misfits," he said, crossing his tiny arms over his chest.

Latios nodded. "_I agree with Pikachu,"_ he joined in telepathically.

"_I want to help them,"_ Latias announced, looking at her friends. _"I feel what they are feeling, and with that knowledge in me, I desire to aid them. No one deserves this kind of misery, even if they are criminals,"_ she told them firmly.

Latios sighed. "Sister…" he mumbled, shaking his head. Latias glanced at him unhappily.

"Oh, come on, I'm asking your help for real! Our Pokémon were stolen and only you can help us!" Jessie protested.

"I want to help," Ash spoke to her. "The thing is, most of my friends don't," he said sadly, glancing at them. Pikachu and Latios shook their heads while Latias glared at them.

"I am not positive about it, I mean, I would normally want to help someone get their Pokémon back," Brock began. "But after all the times you've tried to rob us so ruthlessly, let's just say that I have my doubts…" he finished, shaking his head as he tried to sort out his feelings on the matter.

Bianca shrugged indifferently. "I don't want to help at all," she said. "It's about time they learned a lesson about how bad it is to steal Pokémon. And suffering through what they always try to do to us is a good way to start. Plus, they're from Team Rocket, the same group who almost killed Latios and doomed my hometown," she stated with palpable venom, glaring pointedly at the striking red 'R' emblazoned in Jessie's Team Rocket uniform. "Why should we help someone that's clearly not on friendly terms with us?"

Latios nodded in agreement. _"I agree with her completely,"_ he voiced his position telepathically.

Jessie whimpered, tearing up. She hadn't heard Latios' comment due to being unable to hear his telepathy, but Bianca's was enough. "Oh, come on! We really need help right now! Think of all the times we've helped you! Like… uh…let's see…" Jessie paused, thinking hard for one of the rare occasions they were the good guys for once. "Oh, I know! Lugia! We risked our lives jumping off him so he could fly perfectly and get to the island in time, we helped you there! Remember?" she claimed with a nervous smile.

Ash shook his head. "Well, no, Lugia was rather pissed about that. He felt offended that you guys thought he wasn't a good enough flyer to carry two humans and a Meowth," Ash corrected. "He said it didn't really matter and even with you on board, it'd have been the same. All you accomplished was insulting him."

"But it's the intention that counts!" Jessie argued desperately. "Come on twerps, just help us out this one time!" she said urgently, already on the verge of tears.

"I told you, I wanna help!" Ash said immediately. "But my friends aren't too convinced, and without them there's not much I can do. I'm in the minority here Jessie, sorry," he said, sparing a few glances to Bianca, Pikachu and Latios.

Bianca nodded. "No, we should not help. This isn't our problem Ash, and running off to fight a dangerous criminal might not be the best of ideas. It could be dangerous. And aside from that, they can't be trusted," the artist said. Jessie began to cry loudly upon hearing her statement. Bianca facepalmed.

"I do feel sorry for them," Brock said, shuddering at the guilt he was feeling from turning away from the thieves in their hour of need.

"_I'm not, seeing her cry like this for what is a big slap of karmic irony is actually kinda fun. I say we let them suffer while we enjoy their misery,"_ Latios said, chuckling at Jessie's despair. Latias smacked him in the head psychically. "Hey!" he yelled, glaring at her. His sister simply glared back angrily.

Ash frowned. "Who was it that stole your Pokémon? Was it some lone thief or another Team Rocket guy? I remember that Cassidy and… what was his name? Cliff? Bill? Beak? Whatever, I remember that they had a rivalry with you guys," he said curiously, idly wondering who the criminal that had so badly hurt Team Rocket was.

"No, it wasn't them. This guy was evil beyond explanation!" Jessie cried out, sobbing. "His Pokémon were creepy, he was such a powerful guy… He was a poacher…and had a gun…"

Ash frowned sadly. "I hate poachers."

Jessie nodded. "I hate them too, ever since the trio brothers in Johto, but this Rico guy really topped them off…" Ash, Brock, Latios, Latias, Pikachu, Larvitar and Phanpy froze the instant the name had been mentioned. Jessie sniffed. "Uh, did I say something wrong?" she asked, shrinking down in hurt at their reaction.

Bianca blinked at their unexpected expressions. "What's wrong, guys?" she asked, confused at the collective reaction when the name had been mentioned.

Brock gasped, gaze hardening in anger instantly. "Wait a minute… wasn't that the poacher…" he began.

"Who has Larvitar's mother!?" Ash finished, just as surprised and angered as the older trainer.

Larvitar's face immediately lit up in joy at the prospect of reuniting with his mother. "Daddy! We're going to save her, right!? You promised!" he asked loudly, running in front of Ash. "I want my mommy! Please!" he cried out, tugging at his trainer's jeans.

Ash nodded firmly. "Yes, we'll go find this guy," he declared. "And get your mother back."

"Well, I guess this changes the situation. We're definitely going after this guy," Bianca said, looking down at Larvitar. She didn't interact much with the child, but she did know of his terrible backstory. And she wanted him to find the joy that he pursued.

Jessie blinked. "Wait… so you'll help us!?" she asked, eyes suddenly lit up with bright hope and happiness.

"Yes, you really should have just said his name from the start," Brock answered bluntly. "We're doing this more for personal reasons than helping you, but yeah, we are," he added. "Now Jessie, when and where did this happen?"

Jessie swallowed to clear up her voice before answering. "It happened in the northern edge of the forest, near the end of the road that leads to Rustboro City. That was yesterday afternoon… and after stealing our Pokémon, Rico had said that he was done with his job," she explained, adding in all the details that she found relevant.

Brock hummed at the dilemma at hand. "That is going to be a problem…" he said, looking down at the floor while thinking hard.

"Uh, why is that?" Ash asked, turning to look at him.

"Because Jessie said that after Rico finished with them, he said he was done. That was late afternoon; he's had what's left of yesterday and this morning to move. It'll be hard to find him," Brock explained. "He could have moved a lot between the time he robbed Team Rocket and now, so he could be anywhere."

Latios looked out the door towards the forest. _"If he camped in the woods to spend the night in the cover of the forest, he should still be in the forest, or at least, in the outskirts. Me and Latias are fast and have extremely good eyesight, so he'd have to try hard to evade our detection."_

Jessie looked at Ash, eyes pleading with worry. "Please, get Arbok, Weezing, and Meowth back too…," she said, voice shaky.

Brock interjected before Ash could answer. "We'll get them back, but on one condition. I really hope that this has served as a lesson for you two. We'll have a talk before we just freely hand over your Pokémon. Assuming we get them back, of course."

Jessie nodded sadly. "Okay…," she muttered in a tiny voice.

Nurse Joy, who had been listening in on their conversation while treating the wound on James's chest, looked up at them. "Rustboro City's Officer Jenny has been staying here in the Pokémon Center, hunting Pokémon Hunter Rico. I'll ask her to come over so she can hear the information you have."

Bianca nodded. "Very well, that would be the most prudent thing to do, call the police."

Nurse Joy examined James, and after determining his basic treatment was done, she nodded. "Okay Chansey, put him in a good place to rest," she ordered. Chansey nodded and took James away. Nurse Joy walked over to her counter and picked up a radio. She pressed the talk button and spoke into it. "Officer Jenny, Officer Jenny, come in, this is Nurse Joy," she said in a clear and neutral voice, and then she released the talk button.

A few seconds passed, and then a small static sound was heard, followed by Officer Jenny's slightly distorted voice. "This is Officer Jenny, what is it Nurse Joy?" she asked.

Nurse Joy pressed the speech button again. "Come to the Pokémon Center immediately. I have two victims of Pokémon Hunter Rico, as well as important leads on him."

Silence followed, and then Officer Jenny's voice sounded again. "Roger, I'm close. I'll be over in five minutes," she said, and then the radio went silent.

Brock squealed in joy as he leapt into the air. "Oh, bliss! That gorgeous angel who shall one day marry me is about to come! This is perfect!" he gushed happily, and then quickly shut up when Bianca and Latias scowled at him in an unpleasant manner and he realized how badly out of place his reaction was.

"How are we going to find Rico, though?" Ash asked, glancing at the group. "I really want to beat him up for daring to buy Larvitar's mother, and for hurting Team Rocket."

Latios glanced towards the windows of the Pokémon Center. _"I can fly at high altitudes. Like I said, Latias and I have extremely sharp eyesight, not to mention our psychic detection abilities. If I search hard and fast in the general area, I could probably find him," _he suggested.

Brock nodded in agreement. "I guess that is our best bet for finding him," he said before turning to look at Jessie. "Did he have any kind of transportation?" he asked.

"He had a green jeep," Jessie answered. "And several trailers attached to it. They were cages."

Brock lowered his gaze, a thoughtful look on his face as he analyzed the situation. "So he has a vehicle and is dragging a lot of weight in an area that lacks paved roads. Assuming he camped in the night instead of moving, he can't be that far away... but considering the situation, he most likely got up first thing in the morning to move. That gives him a couple of hours. With some luck, right now he is either in the forest borders or has just left them."

Bianca nodded. "That's logical, but if he did move under the cover of the night..." she paused and glanced at Larvitar sadly before adding, "Then I doubt we'd have any chance at catching him." The Rock Skin Pokémon winced and looked down, terrified at the idea. Bianca knelt and petted the Pokémon softly as a method to comfort him.

"Then we just have to hope for the best then," Ash said. He crouched down and petted Larvitar's head tenderly as Bianca took a step back. The Rock/Ground-type closed his eyes and pressed into Ash's touch a lot more willingly than Bianca's.

"Don't forget to get back Arbok, Weezing, and Meowth. Also, Rico had another twenty or so poached Pokemon with him. It'll be nice if you could free them too," Jessie said with a trace of hope, looking at Ash.

"Don't worry, I won't forget it," the Pallet Town Pokemon trainer answered. The sound of a car's engine could be heard in the distance, making everyone turn to look towards the front door. Latias and Latios immediately cloaked themselves.

"That must be Officer Jenny," Nurse Joy informed the group, gazing towards the double door.

The front door slid open as the police woman stepped in. Standing at her side was a very strong-looking and well-disciplined Arcanine. "What is the information you have on Pokemon Poacher Rico?" she asked, getting straight to the point while walking towards the group. "I've been on Rico's trail for over a week now with no luck."

"I have two victims of his actions," Nurse Joy answered. "And these three here seem to know something regarding his past activities." She pointed at the group.

Officer Jennny nodded and turned to look at Jessie and Ash's group. "Well?" she asked impatiently in a no-nonsense tone. She stared for a few seconds at Jessie and at the red logo on her shirt. The officer could've sworn she's seen it before, but there wasn't much information regarding it in Hoenn. She made a mental note to check up with Kanto and Johto authorities as to what that red 'R' meant; she was sure it wasn't a good sign at all. Though, right now, her priority was the investigation behind Rico.

Brock was tempted to hit on the hot beauty standing before them, but her excessively serious tone and hard attitude clearly indicated know it was not the time for it, so he remained serious as well. "They were attacked by poacher Rico yesterday afternoon near the north edge of the Petalburg woods. We know Rico moves in a jeep with several cages attached to it," he answered.

Officer Jenny growled softly, clenching her fists tightly. "Dammit, that far and yesterday? I hoped that the information would be a bit more recent, by now Rico could have moved anywhere," the officer said, clearly dismayed. "Did Rico mention or give any indication that he would stay in the forest or leave?"

Jessie weakly nodded once. "He said we were his last poach in the area and that he was done, so he is leaving. He didn't tell us where though…not like he would," she answered in a heartbroken tone.

Officer Jenny nodded back at her, and then turned to look at the group in general. "Thanks for the information. I'll head to the area where you reported his last poach was and continue from there. I need to go; time is of the essence if I have any hope of catching him."

"Wait!" Ash called out, stopping her as she turned her attention towards him. "We want to go with you to help catch this guy, we have a problem with him too," he called out in determination as Pikachu nodded in agreement with the trainer.

Officer Jenny shook her head. "No. First of all, why would I let a kid tag along with me when I am tasked with the objective of hunting down a dangerous criminal? This is a serious matter and you're just a child. I mean, look at you! You barely look like you're ten, eleven at most," she criticized harshly.

Ash growled as he felt slightly offended by her words. "I'm twelve years old, and I am a stronger trainer," he argued to justify himself. "I placed third in the Silver Conference."

"So?" Officer Jenny replied. "That is still no excuse to expose a kid to such danger." She turned to look at Brock. "I believe you are a Kanto Gym Leader. As such you would be qualified for something like this. How many Pokémon do you have?" she asked him.

Brock sighed with disappointment. "I am a former Gym Leader, but I only have one Pokemon with me right now. The rest are back at my home in Kanto."

"Useless for the situation it seems," Officer Jenny huffed starkly, but she was realistically taking the situation. "Sorry, but I'm not going to take anyone with me. And I need to go now if I have any hope to catch Rico, if it _is_ possible to find him with the advantage in time he has over me."

"That's another thing I can help with," Ash said stubbornly, determined to make her trust him. "I have a very good way to locate Rico. I have a Latias and Latios, with their powers finding Rico will be easier! They're super fast and psychic, and I have a full team of six Pokémon, including my two legendaries. I really wanna help fight this bad guy!" he exclaimed determinedly. On cue, Latias and Latios dropped their invisibility, letting themselves be seen and immediately making the police officer focus her attention on them. "I ranked third in the Silver Conference, I can handle myself!" Ash added.

Latios snorted. _"Well, if she says we can't go, we'll just go ourselves when she's out of sight, it's not like she can stop us. We'd probably have Rico taken care of and she'd still be wandering aimlessly in the forest by the time we're finished,"_ he said telepathically. Ash, Bianca and Brock sweatdropped at the eon dragon's comment, but none doubted that it was more fact than fiction.

Officer Jenny hummed as she pondered this. She did not like the idea of taking such a young trainer with her on an operation against a criminal like Rico, but he was strong, as was proven by his possession of two legendaries and his claimed third place in the Johto League. As much as Jenny hated to admit it, without the red and blue dragons' assistance it might be impossible to find Rico before he escaped well beyond their reach. She sighed. "Fine, kid, but I hope you realize what you're getting into," Officer Jenny said, not sounding very convinced or happy with the decision she was being forced to take. "But, since your friends don't have Pokémon for the task, only you are allowed to come along. The others stay."

Ash grinned and nodded. "You won't regret it. Ready, guys? Time to get Larvitar's mother back!" he declared. Latias, Latios, Pidgeot and Pikachu nodded with confidence while Larvitar and Phanpy looked at their trainer with admiration and hope.

Officer Jenny turned towards the exit. "Let's go, then. Every second we are here is another second Rico gains on us," she spoke authoritatively as she made her way to her vehicle.

Ash winced, but understood why she was like that. He grabbed three Pokéballs and returned Pidgeot, Larvitar and Phanpy back to them. Pikachu jumped on his shoulder, nodding at him and signaling that he was ready for this. "I'll be back soon, guys," he said as he made his way to the door. Latias and Latios followed him.

Brock nodded. "We'll take care of these two. Don't take long, Ash!" he called out. Ash raised his hand and waved at him as he boarded Jenny's jeep.

"And be careful!" Bianca added, her voice filled with concern. "You too, Latias and Latios!"

"_Oh, we will Bianca. Don't worry, we will,"_ Latios promised, a determined and very angry look on his features. He looked towards the sky. The hunt was on. _"Time for the hunter to become the hunted…"_

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, in an undisclosed location in the ocean off the coast of the Hoenn Region…<p>

A massive armored fortress cruised steadily across the surface of the open sea. The waves beat against the hull harshly, but the titanic machine barely noticed the force inflicted. The only parts visible above the water level was a massive hull spanning at least one and a half miles in length with several towers and structures rising from it. It was mostly painted a dull blue color. Despite its huge size, it was clear that there was much more of the machine below the water. Besides the floating fortress were a couple dozen comparatively smaller ships, some floating on the water and some flying steadily in the air. Several smaller submarines were also scattered around the fleet as they escorted its parent vessel.

On the bridge of the floating fortress, a man calmly looked outwards towards the ocean through the windshields. All around him, countless grunts and officers worked around the numerous controls of the massive structure, all of them wearing the same uniform consisting of blue pants with black and white striped shirts and blue bandannas tied on their heads. As he continued to focus his gaze across the sparkling blue waters, three distinctive personnel slowly approached him.

"You called, Lord Archie?" one of them asked, bowing slightly with respect as she arrived.

"What news do you have for me, Shelly?" the tall, burly man looking out the window demanded in a low and gruff voice. He was dressed in a black colored long sleeved deep cut and high collared shirt with dark grey pants. He had a thick beard framing his face and a blue bandana covering his head. Both his shirt and bandana were imprinted with the logo of the villainous Team Aqua, a white circle with two bones sticking from the underside. He turned his attention towards the three newcomers in the control room.

"I've confirmed it, Lord Archie. Team Magma initiated an attack against the Oldale Ruins a short while ago," the woman in question answered. She was a tall young woman with vibrant pinkish-red wild-curled hair flowing down her back with a blue bandana wrapped on her head with the Team Aqua logo up front. She had long blue bell-bottom pants with red circle runes running down the side, and she wore a black sports bra with a blue crop vest on top that was opened up. Her name was Shelly, the second in command of Team Aqua and the first Administrator.

"I suggest we investigate them in that case," a burly man said. He was the tallest of the group, wearing blue pants and a simple opened up shirt to expose his well-built chest. He also had a blue bandanna with the Team Aqua insignia tied around his head, letting small flecks of hair out. "If Team Magma was there, it's bound to be valuable," Matt, the second Team Aqua Administrator, said. He growled and smashed his fist into the palm of his other hand. "And if we find them, we can crush them with one swift stroke."

"No, Matt," the last one objected. He was slightly shorter, with a thin jaw and thinner physical build than Matt. Unlike the others, he wore a striped white and black undershirt with a blue vest slung on top of it. Like everyone else associated with Team Aqua, he had a blue bandanna tied over his head with no visible hair escaping it. "I don't think they'll be there," Amber, the third Team Aqua Administrator, said.

Archie hummed. "I heard they were captured. Is that right, Shelly?" he asked, turning to look at her.

Shelly nodded. "Yes, Lord Archie. Four members of Team Magma were captured by the police force at Oldale Town. I don't have knowledge of the details of how that happened, but they were. According to the news and my sources, another section of their group escaped… along with whatever they retrieved from the chamber. Also, the chamber is now opened and being investigated by a local professor while under constant police surveillance. We don't have the exact details of what was captured, though."

"That means we need to do something and fast," Amber noted, his tone of voice neutral. "Team Magma has a lead over us. And we don't know what it is or its importance. It could be something small and insignificant, or it could be a massive step forward."

"Damned Team Magma…always a step ahead of us," Matt mumbled, shaking his head and growling lowly.

"Yes, I know!" Archie hissed angrily. "That asshole Maxie… anyway, we need to move quickly if we are not to fall behind in our pursuit of Lady Goddess Kyogre and the Red Orb. We must obtain them, or that disgrace of an idiot Groudon and the Blue Orb, before Team Magma does."

"Four members of them were captured and probably undergoing interrogation now," Amber noted. "That means that the police and governmental forces are now focused on them instead of us. Their supposed lead does have a double-edge. This is the perfect time to move, as they have the law tailing Magma while we are free to operate without interference."

Shelly nodded. "Yes. And I've got interesting information in order to gain a leap over Team Magma. One of my contacts has informed me that Devon Corporation is working on several interesting devices. One of them is a fossil scanner and restoration machine that uses several chemicals of their creation to heighten the properties of fossils and maybe make it possible to restore them or obtain intimate data from them. We have fossils of skin cells shed by Lady Goddess Kyogre long ago. If we got a hold of that machine, we could take a step forward in finding a way to acquire her whereabouts and track her down."

Archie lowered his gaze, thoughtful. "Interesting…" he trailed off, tapping the panel in front of him with his right hand's fingers.

"Also, Devon Corporation as a whole has been doing constant studies on the origin of Pokémon to help develop many things to aid in Pokémon training. Things like seeing a Pokémon's mind or building a coveted Pokémon translator are all things they've wanted to do for years now." Shelly paused for a moment to clear her breath before resuming her explanation. "It is my understanding that they believe understanding the origin of Pokémon and the difference with humans will aid them in that. It's easier to make things compatible if you know their past. So they've accepted the chance that Pokémon originate from Legendaries, and are studying Legendary Pokémon, including Lady Goddess Kyogre and that asshole Groudon to develop some of their database. Their information may be… might I say, useful to our cause and purpose."

"Most interesting," Archie said in a thoughtful tone of voice. "Team Magma acquired information from an ancient source; we, however, shall look for information from a more… modern source," he noted with a small chuckle.

Shelly chuckled in agreement. "Indeed. Acquiring information about several more Legendary Pokémon aside from that moron Groudon or Lady Goddess Kyogre might be useful. If we are to believe Legendaries are far more connected than we thought, any of them might be useful. We should focus on what Devon Corporation has researched on those two, but we shouldn't throw away the rest of them. They may be useful, and we're certainly not going to let Team Magma get their hands on our hard work," she said.

"Think we can sneak an agent into the corporation to steal what's needed?" Archie asked, looking over at his faithful Admins to hear their opinions.

"Devon Corporation has grown into a titanic company over the years with formidable security," Amber interjected, shaking his head. "Acquiring anything from them is not going to be easy, especially not for a lone agent. And if their fossil machine is large, we can't simply steal it with a single spy."

Shelly nodded. "Devon Corporation's massive growth in economic power has led them to tighten their security a lot more each day, just like I mentioned. Sneaking into them will take too long. I personally suggest a more… aggressive strike. We should take what we want by force instead of stealthily, since force takes way less time. It may be risky, but…we can lose a few agents for such a luxurious gain."

"But, I did mention we had the advantage that the police forces were against Team Magma because of the grunts of them that were captured," Amber argued. "If we do such an action against Devon Corporation without stealth then we'd shift the attention back to us, again."

Archie growled, tightening his fists with anger. "Time is against us. Whatever Team Magma acquired in Oldale Town, they are already working on it. We need to take our own leads." He turned to his three operatives and issued new orders. "Shelly, organize a mission to make a full attack towards Devon Corporation's headquarters in Rustboro City. Matt, Amber, help her in it. Your objectives are simple. I want to you steal their fossil scanning machine. Also, I want you to infiltrate their database and extract an entire copy of it. And finally, kidnap their president, Mr. Stone. He knows secrets that might not be in his database. And his safety might prove to be a valuable bargaining chip for more things in the future. Failure is unforgivable!"

"We'll need a large attack force to do that…" Amber muttered, clearly surprised at Archie's sudden decision to do such an action, he wasn't entirely happy about the order as it'd turn everyone's attention on Team Aqua, but if Archie deemed it the best, then he'd go for it.

Archie nodded with a pleased smirk. "Forget stealth. I need to regain ground against Team Magma. You three have my authorization to launch an attack as big as is necessary to succeed. I want the three objects I asked for. I don't care if you need to blow up the Devon Corporation building or kill their entire research and security staffs in the process. We need to hurry and catch up to Team Magma, because as stupid and undeserving of respect as Groudon is, he is undeniably strong. If they get him first, we are doomed if we lack Lady Goddess Kyogre's support."

Shelly stood firmly with a salute. "As you command, Lord Archie, we shall carry out the mission."

"What resources do we have to execute this mission, Lord Archie?" Amber asked curtly. "Devon Corporation has tight security, and most importantly, remember that the former league champion of Hoenn is most likely there right now. Steven Stone resigned his position as champion a couple of months ago. Considering Mr. Stone is his father, there is a high chance he is there. It is rumored that Steven Stone's infamous Metagross is borderline invincible. He'll sweep our forces aside singlehandedly! If I recall, during Steven's time as champion, his Metagross was never defeated."

"Take the First Legion of Aqua grunts and Pokémon," Archie said, turning in direction of the windows. He looked outwards towards the ocean, and the parts of his fortress that were visible from there. "And take the Sea Titan combat fortress. You have my authorization to use as many of its armaments and attack assets as needed. I don't care about stealth this time around."

Matt grinned. "Perfect! Now that's what I'm talking about! Heavy firepower to punish those who dare stand in our path!" he gushed with eagerness. The four gazed towards the specified Sea Titan vessel, which was right in front of the main fortress they were on.

Team Aqua's frontline attack vessels could be easily considered a marvel of combat science. Acting as a roughly eight hundred foot long submarine, airship, and a fully-fledged combat vessel as well as a carrier with formidable weapons and armor, these war machines could easily inflict heavy punishment while taking it just as effortlessly and remain fully operational.

With a Kyogre-colored scheme adorning their exterior, Team Aqua's multipurpose warship was designed to be a versatile and effective fighting machine at the same time. This was evident with the long, sleek design of the vessel that was coated and shielded with heavy armor all around. The command bridges were located at the forefront center of the vehicles; this was where all the necessary communications equipment was located while its officers would oversee battles. The vessels were equipped with a pair of impressive-looking very thick Kyogre-like armored 'fins' that adorned the lower starboard and port sides of the vessel. Several large hybrid engines were located inside them. The 'fins' and engines aided the huge submarine/aircraft hybrid's ability to go airborne or glide through the ocean depths. On the rearmost aft of the ships, a large array of steering fins that oddly resembled Kyogre's tailfins were located, along with a pair of engines to further boost the vessels' movement capabilities. All of their weapons were hidden in various compartments of the warships that looked like marked indentations until the time to deploy them for combat became necessary. In addition to its impressive arsenal, it also possessed a complement of smaller fighter jet-submersible hybrids that could be deployed at a moment's notice to defend its parent vessel against more versatile adversaries.

"Prepare to depart on your mission," Archie ordered simply, eyes narrowing. "I want those objectives fulfilled. Let me remind you, failure is not something I want to hear when you three get back."

"Yes, sir!" All three Admins saluted, turned around and headed away from the bridge. Archie sighed, and walked to his seat to relax, all that was left now was to have faith in his Admins.

Unknown to any of them or the other personnel working in the command room, a very small Pokémon was intently watching them from the shadows. Below one of the many consoles and controls, a very tiny yellow mite-like Pokémon was spying on them with curious intent. The Joltik nodded when he saw that all the important information had been discussed, turned, and slowly crawled his way towards a ventilation shaft, being careful that no one noticed him.

The Joltik gave the room one last glimpse and entered the ventilation system. As if he knew the path by memory, he quickly navigated his way through the massive ship's ventilation tunnels. After several long minutes of quick traveling and moving around, the Joltik came to an opening, which he quickly went through. Upon exiting, he was greeted face-to-face with a typical gruff, manly-looking Team Aqua grunt.

The Aqua grunt, dressed with the team's typical blue bandanna, horizontal-striped white and grey shirt, and blue pants, nodded once. "Do you have anything important?" he asked the Joltik once. To his joy, the Joltik nodded instantly, an almost devilish look glinting in its tiny eyes. "Perfect. Share it with me then," the grunt said eagerly.

The Electric/Bug-type nodded and began to glow in a soft sparkly pink hue, until all of its physical details were lost. Slowly the Pokémon began to grow larger and drastically started changing shape, and four long legs began to be clearly noticeable along with a long forked-tail and long ears. When the glow disappeared, an Espeon was standing where the Joltik once was. "There, that's better," the Espeon spoke, not in Poke-speech, but in actual human tongue. "I hate how as most Bug-types I can't talk like this, ugh," he complained.

The Team Aqua grunt laughed softly. "Well, it's very hard to edit the according vocal chords into them, right, Varian?" he asked, smiling slightly.

"You have no idea, Brodie," the Espeon said, shaking his head slightly. "Even if I'm old and powerful, it doesn't mean I can do things that are practically impossible. I might be able to do it with a large Bug-type, but not with the small ones. Anyways, you'll like what I heard just now."

The Team Aqua grunt, now identified as Brodie, nodded. "Well, let's hear it," he urged impatiently.

The Espeon's eyes glowed softly, his now psychic mind reaching out and connecting with Brodie's, before slowly playing back in his head what he had spied in the control room while hidden as a tiny Joltik. "There it is," he said daintily.

Brodie nodded as the events played out in his mind. He couldn't help but snort softly. "Ah, that Archie, losing his head and cool so easily. Maxie's gonna love this," Brodie said, shaking his head in amusement.

The Espeon's eyes stopped glowing as the mental connection ended. "Yep," he agreed as his body began to glow a sparkly pink again, slowly morphing into a formless pink blob with a plain-looking face. Brodie lowered his arm, letting the Ditto climb up it until he rested on the human's shoulder.

"Well, Varian, let's report this to Maxie at once," Brodie said as he turned and walked down a hallway.

The Ditto on his shoulder nodded. "These Team Aqua idiots think they're safe from surveillance. They'll have no idea what hit them," he taunted, smirking sinisterly.

Brodie nodded, returning the smirk. He reached a door in a secluded corridor and opened it, entering one of the many crew rooms, where several of the Team Aqua grunts stationed in the vessel slept. He gave the room one quick glance to make sure no one was there, and then he locked the room's door. He walked to the lockers and opened the one that was his, or, more correctly, previously owned by the Team Aqua grunt he had disposed of discreetly so he could impersonate his victim without any suspicions. He pulled a heavily armored case out of the locker, which he put on the floor gently. The case was dull gray, lined up with three different keyholes. "Varian, hand me the keys," Brodie requested, tilting his head to look at his shapeshifting companion.

The Ditto nodded, extending one of his barely-identifiable arms forward. From his arm, three small blobs of pink goo fell, which started glowing and transforming into three very oddly shaped metallic keys. Brodie grabbed them, inserted them into the locks in a certain pattern, and twisted them in the correct order to unlock the container. The case's locks opened, allowing Brodie to fully open the case, revealing it to be a computer of some sorts. The screen flashed as nine squares appeared, along with a red blinking light. Brodie calmly introduced the correct password that'd deactivate the self-destruction of the device should it be opened by someone else. The screen flashed again as all the security measures were correctly deactivated. Brodie grabbed an antenna from the side of the case and pulled it up, waiting patiently as he accessed a protected line of communications. Seconds later, Maxie's face appeared on the screen. "Brodie, is that you?" the leader of Team Magma asked, eyes narrowing.

Brodie, still in the Team Aqua disguise, chuckled. "Well, of course dear, who else would it be? I told you, I can't be discovered at all. There's a reason I'm known as Brodie the phantom thief, or the man of the thousand faces, whichever you pick. Both sound cool and are very true. I leave no trace. I am perfect."

"Enough chitchat. Prove it, just in case," Maxie ordered with a sharp voice. He admitted that Brodie's disguises were so good, sometimes it was hard telling if it was really him or a counter-ploy by Team Aqua.

The Magma operative rolled his eyes. "Fine, I told you I can't be discovered, but if you are so paranoid on me being here all alone in Team Aqua's headquarters…" he said in a half-mocking voice that made Maxie glare at him. "Vita, you can come off."

"Okay," a third voice said softly. Suddenly, it seemed as if Brodie's body began to glow. The Team Aqua bandanna and his Team Aqua shirt began to turn into pink goo, and what seemed to be a thin layer of pink goo began to slither from his face and neck. All the pink goo began to collect into a single glob on Brodie's chest. The Ditto, named Vita, hummed once she had fully assembled herself.

Brodie smiled. "Happy, Maxie? I may cheat and lie to get what I want, but here I am," he asked now that his true self was revealed. He was wearing a plain gray shirt and his face was now more feminine than the previous more rugged sailor-like appearance provided by his Ditto, and his hair was now uncovered, revealing a messy purple haircut with a couple of front flecks dyed orange. Under his right eye was a linear green mark.

Maxie grimaced. Every time he saw that he couldn't help but think it was a bit unnerving. He quickly regained his composure."Don't act so hurt Brodie; while I trust your stealthy abilities, I can't be too sure if it'd be a trap set up by Team Aqua to provide me false information in case they did discover you," Maxie said, his voice fairly neutral. "One has to be careful with these kinds of operations."

Varian rolled his eyes while Vita snickered. Brodie nodded, accepting his reasoning. "I understand, sir. Very well." He still felt offended that his spying abilities were put to question, even if he admitted the Team Magma leader had a good reason to be wary.

Maxie's tone turned a lot more serious as he shifted the subject to more serious matters. "What have you called to tell me about, Brodie?" he asked, going straight to the point.

"Team Aqua is preparing a full scale attack on Rustboro City with a substantial force. Their main objective, however, is to kidnap the owner of Devon Corp., steal valuable machines, and also hack their databases. They believe they have useful information to reach Groudon or Kyogre," Brodie answered. "They will initiate their assault soon."

Maxie hummed, deep in thought. "Do you know what stirred this… very outgoing and sudden command from Archie?" he asked curiously. He knew Archie was very hot-headed, but not _this_ much.

Brodie nodded. "It was the attack you made on Oldale Town. Team Aqua believes we are several steps ahead of them and that they need to recover the lead as soon as possible no matter what," the master spy answered, keeping his voice low.

Maxie nodded. "Okay, thanks Brodie. Continue your surveillance of Archie. Your next assignment is to board the ship that will participate in the assault against Rustboro City and try to sabotage it. If you have a chance to obtain either of Team Aqua's own objectives like the Devon Corp. president or their databases, then by all means go ahead. I will make sure to add a bonus to your next paycheck if you do."

Brodie nodded with a sinister smile. "Very well, sir. Anything else?" he asked.

"Don't fail," Maxie bluntly added, and suddenly the screen went blank. Brodie lowered the antenna, turned the computer off and closed the case. Grabbing the keys, he proceeded to lock up the container again. Once the armored case was locked, the keys dissolved into pink goo that traveled up his arm and rejoined with Varian the Ditto.

"What a rude individual," Vita complained. "That head honcho of ours is annoying. Why do we work for them anyway? This Team Aqua versus Team Magma thing is silly beyond comprehension," she affirmed.

Brodie shrugged. "They're the highest bidder, that's why. We work for those who are willing to offer the biggest paycheck, simple as that," he answered to his second Ditto. "We better board that other ship and get ready," he suggested, standing up and walking towards the door. "Vita, transform back into a Team Aqua disguise at once," he told her, briefly glancing at her.

Vita nodded. "Okay!" She began to melt into Brodie's shirt, becoming thinner and spreading herself out, quickly coating his chest, arms, neck, and then moving up to enclose his head. Once he was completely covered in a thin layer of the Ditto's pink goo-like body, she began to glow, morphing into different objects that quickly changed Brodie's appearance completely, rapidly hiding and changing his extravagant hair and effeminate looks into a bald and tough-looking Team Aqua sailor, coupled with the according uniform and bandanna.

"Thank you, Vita," Brodie said gratefully once his change of appearance was completed. Knowing that a change of ship was approaching, he grabbed whatever possessions he needed to keep as he prepared to leave no trace of his presence. "Let's go," he announced as he stepped out of the room once he was done. "Varian, a Mightyena," he ordered straightforwardly. Varian nodded and slid off his arm. As he landed on the floor, he began to glow pink, quickly assuming the form of a Mightyena.

Brodie then walked calmly towards the docks of the submarine fortress he was on, getting ready to change ship and proceed with his orders, all the while presenting himself as a typical Team Aqua grunt…

* * *

><p><strong>Author Notes:<strong> Just to tell you all, since it's been tough for me to tell apart the individual personalities and aspects of the Team Aqua and Magma Admins that are exclusive to the games and manga (mainly because I don't think they give enough information for me to draw an accurate characterization) I've kinda decided to personalize them myself, so it's a lot easier and I can work with more space. I've also decided to go into a more unique characterization with Brodie, since I felt the anime was too shallow and Brodie could have been a much better character. He'll make a lot more appearances, so be wary, he could be anywhere.

Anyway, I hope you all like my decisions!


	10. Hunting The Hunter!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.**

"Speech"

_'Thoughts'_

_"Telepathy" _

**Author Notes:** Here it is… chapter 10!

Also, I have a new Poll in my profile. "**Who do you think is Latias and Latios' mother?" **Go and vote!

**Chapter 10 – Hunting the Hunter!**

* * *

><p>"So, what do you have against that Rico guy?" Officer Jenny asked her underage passenger with an inquisitive voice, her eyes never leaving the road as she skillfully maneuvered the jeep through the wooded area. "You seem very eager to fight him."<p>

Ash growled slightly at the mere mention of the poacher's name, tightly clenching his hands around his seatbelt. "He's a crook, and he has the mom of one of my Pokémon!" Ash answered the officer, his voice tainted with a mixture of bitterness and fury. "I want to beat him so I can free her."

Officer Jenny nodded slightly, understanding the motives behind the trainer's participation in her mission. "I understand," she simply responded, stepping on the accelerator to increase the vehicle's speed. "Have any of your Legendary Pokémon found Rico?"

Ash closed his eyes, focusing his thoughts on the tiny presence the Eon dragon had left in his mind as a means of telepathic communication. _'Latios? Any luck yet?'_ he inquired.

"_Not yet, I'm searching the outskirts of the forest, but it's like looking for a needle in a green haystack. We know where Rico was roughly fifteen hours ago, but he could be anywhere by now. It's almost an impossible task…"_ Latios answered telepathically, his mental voice clearly filled with frustration.

"_Calm down, brother. If we get all riled up and frustrated, we'll only mess up our chances of finding him even more,"_ Latias gently reminded him, trying to calm her brother down.

Ash shook his head, sighing sadly as he opened his eyes. "Nothing yet, Officer Jenny," he answered the police officer, clearly disappointed at the dragon's response.

Officer Jenny frowned at his revelation. "Dammit. We definitely need to find him by the end of today, because after that, it's a lost case," she stated, her eyes firmly locked on the road ahead. "If we don't find him quick, then it's likely we'll never catch him at all."

Somewhere else, Latios growled to himself as he scanned the ground below, hundreds of feet high in the air and cloaked to prevent being spotted by any nosy humans below. He could see a vast portion of the landscape, but he couldn't see anything that remotely resembled what they were searching for, a jeep-style vehicle with several cages tied to it. _'Hell, I don't even know if he's anywhere near the general area I'm looking in right now…'_ Latios lamented. He was deeply eager to defeat Rico and get Larvitar's mother back at last, but in order to do that, it was imperative that they find him first.

His sharp eyes managed to spot a flock of Swellow and Taillow flying towards Petalburg Woods. Hoping to gather some useful clues, he silently flew near them as his pupils emitted a bright shade of blue light, a sign that he was tapping into his psychic powers. He scanned their memories quickly to see if any had seen Rico while flying around but to his dismay, nothing useful or relevant was gathered. Latios looked around his environment, picking a different area to search and hurriedly flew towards it. As he sped towards his destination, his eyes continued to survey every inch of the ground below. Sadly, all he could see were the rivers, roads, trees, the many wild Pokémon inhabiting the wilderness, and the occasional human or two but he could not find what he was looking for. He gained some altitude, gazing towards the distant terrain. He could spot a handful of towns in the surrounding area, the vast forest that was Petalburg Woods, and beyond that he could see small hints of blue from the ocean. The dragon's gaze went back to some of the towns. Could Rico be hiding in one of them? Deciding to investigate there, he took action.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew past Latios, nearly knocking him out of his flight. "Whoa!" the Eon Pokémon cried out in surprise. He quickly diverted a bit more mental power into his levitation and easily stabilized himself in the air. "What was that?" he questioned out loud, looking around for an answer. For some reason, that breeze had felt… quite abnormal, as if it wasn't a normal gust of wind. He shrugged, deciding to dismiss it as nothing special until a second breeze hit him, though in a more gentle manner this time around. Latios hummed to himself, gazing around. "Okaaaaay…" he muttered uneasily, feeling slightly intimidated by the inexplicable event.

The breeze blew through the sky once more, gently caressing his feathers as the wind passed by, but for some strange reason, Latios felt an odd presence within the wind, as if there was a manipulator behind the movement of air. It was almost as if it was compelling him to follow it. Eerily enough, the sound generated by the wind felt like there was a very subtle whisper in the current. Latios, after pondering it for a few moments and realizing he really didn't have any other ideal options, decided to follow the wind's direction. He looked down at the forest below him and his eyes noted that the rustling of leaves from the trees and bushes indicated the wind was actually blowing in a completely different direction in comparison to the one he had encountered a few seconds earlier.

"_Latios, you're heading in the wrong direction of our planned search pattern,"_ Latias warned him, her gentle voice ringing in his head. _"Something wrong_?" she asked.

"_I think I have something. It's weird, but my instincts are telling me to follow it. I'll report my findings in a bit,"_ Latios answered to his little sister as he started following the strange breeze at an accelerated pace. "Huh. The wind is taking me to the ocean," he commented, wondering if the unexpected guidance was correct or simply a farce. He stopped to ponder the situation for a few seconds or so. _'We did say Rico was most likely going to move inland, not towards the coast,' _he thought before shaking his head slightly. However, just as he started to return inland, a stronger breeze passed by and brushed his feathery body, forcefully pushing him towards the direction of the ocean. "Okay, fine!" Latios shouted in an annoyed tone while still feeling extremely confused about the gale's bizarre attitude.

Latios resumed his flight path towards the coast, making sure to remain invisible to the naked eye. It wasn't long before a vast ocean sparkling with endless blue greeted his eyes, meeting the land at the soft brown sandy beach that ran alongside the coastline. The Eon Pokémon frowned slightly, looking around for any potential clues. He began to follow the beach at the insistence of the odd turbulent breeze until he spotted something that appeared to be a large, dark object contrasting with the light brown color of the sand. He squinted at the target, focusing his gaze to the best of his abilities. His eyes widened at what he witnessed. The target resembled a human vehicle, with a single cage behind it packed to the brim with various Poison-type Pokémon. He gasped loudly, and then a small grin drifted across his face. He had located Rico.

Latios retained his position in the air, pondering the options at hand. He could attempt a surprise attack and quickly solve their current dilemma, but if this poacher was as dangerous as Jessie and James claimed, perhaps it was better to execute the plan with the support of the police officer as well as his friends. He inspected the terrain once again, noticing several large rocks jutting out of the sand and surf past the poacher's position_. "Ash! Latias! I've located Rico! He's at the coast, near some large rock formations!"_ he alerted them telepathically, projecting an image of his location. Almost instantly, he received Latias's reply that she was on her way. Latios nodded and flew into the tree line to prevent his cover from being blown, just in case Rico possessed a tool that could neutralize his invisibility like Annie and Oakley had in the past.

While waiting, Latios wondered, how did the wind guide him to Rico with such precision? What had happened? It was extraordinary; was it some odd natural occurrence… or perhaps a Legendary Pokémon? He glanced around, spreading his senses, but he did not find anyone. He shook his head rapidly to dismiss those thoughts. He had no time to place any concern on that matter, since a potentially dangerous battle was imminent. Latios scrutinized the criminal's features. He looked exactly like the one he had glimpsed in the three poachers' memories back in Johto. Accompanying him was Meowth in a small cage on the jeep, and behind him was a rather tough-looking Absol. Behind the all-terrain vehicle, all the captured Pokémon were stuffed in a single cage, making it look painfully packed, and he could identify Jessie and James' Pokémon in the bunch.

Back at Officer Jenny's patrol vehicle, Ash's eyes widened as he gasped loudly, catching Jenny's attention in an instant. _"_What happened!?" she asked the trainer sharply.

"It's Latios. He's found the poacher guy," Ash answered. "He's located on the beach, near some big rocks."

Officer Jenny nodded. "Thankfully, we haven't gone too far inland. I was en route to Rustboro, so we're still close! Hang on kid, the ride's going to get rough!" Jenny warned as she swerved into a sharp left turn before stepping on the accelerator, skillfully cutting through the forest as she sped towards the beach. "I've got you now, Rico…" she expressed quietly, her voice perhaps sounding a bit too excited. She did wonder why Rico had gone to the coast; she had assumed he'd head towards land, not the sea. _'Unless his client is picking up the poached Pokémon by boat…'_ she pondered, narrowing her eyes.

Officer Jenny reached for the radio that was installed in the jeep, prompting a confused look from Ash. "What are you gonna do?" he asked curiously.

"Wait and see," was Officer Jenny's blunt response as she spoke into the radio. "This is Officer Jenny to Rustboro City Police Headquarters. I have a dangerous poacher about to deliver an illegal Pokémon cargo. Send reinforcements by sea to Petalburg Woods' coastline. I suspect that his benefactor may be nearby or approaching, it's a good opportunity."

"Roger that, sending in the coast guard and any necessary backup," the voice on the other end buzzed in reply.

"Affirmative, Rustboro, but use caution when approaching; suspect is known to be predisposed to violence and is likely to be in possession of dangerously aggressive Pokémon, over," responded Jenny.

"Ten-four," came the singular reply.

Ash blinked as he glanced at Jenny and then at the radio confusedly. "What was that for?" he asked curiously.

"If Rico is on the coast, it means that whoever hired him to capture those Pokémon will come to pick up his prize by sea. By dispatching police forces to the area, we can hopefully apprehend the customer too. It is equally imperative to catch the hunters and poachers as it is to detain the people who hire them, Ash," Jenny explained. "Otherwise, if we just arrest the poachers, they'll just hire new outlaws for the task and the problem will continue." Ash nodded in understanding. His gaze returned to the road, feeling more eager than ever to find and defeat Rico.

…

"Aaagh! Where the fuck is he!?" Rico growled angrily as he raised his arm and gazed at his wristwatch, his patience wearing thin. "That bloody idiot was supposed to be here half an hour ago!" Waiting was definitely not something he enjoyed.

"Maybe da guy decided he didn't want us after all," Meowth quipped hopefully, looking up at Rico from the cage he was stuffed in, currently placed on the passenger's seat of the jeep. "Dat means ya can free us all!" he said excitedly, hoping that what he was saying became a reality.

The bad-mannered poacher snarled at the talking Normal-type. "Shut up before I feed you to my Absol!" he threatened, making Meowth shriek in terror and cower within his cage. The Absol, who was calmly sitting in the back of the jeep vehicle without uttering anything the whole time, turned his head and looked at Meowth with his dead eyes, wondering if his master was going to let him devour the Meowth. "Who would've thought that a talking Pokémon could be so freaking annoying!" Rico added. Fearow, who was currently roosting on top of the cage where the poison-type Pokémon were imprisoned, squawked in agreement.

Meowth scratched the back of his head. "I get dat a lot," he replied embarrassedly. "Now let me go!" he wailed, desperately tugging and pushing at the bars of his cage, rivers of tears trailing from his eyes. He had never found himself wishing more for Jessie and James than at this very moment.

Rico sighed in exasperation. "You better be worth a lot of money because you're not exactly proving your worth at the moment," he spat with a growl of irritation, wondering if the feline Pokémon was really worth the annoyance involved in carrying him around.

The Absol's head rose and tilted towards the forest, his powerful senses tingling as he detected the danger that was approaching their position. He leapt from the jeep and released a rough and monotone vocalization of his name from his lips, his head locked firmly towards the direction of the forest. Rico turned to look at his Absol, frowning, and then focused his glare on Meowth. "What did he say?" he asked, his tone clearly telling Meowth that it would be better for his health to answer truthfully.

"Someone's comin' here!" Meowth yapped instantly, cowering in his confinement.

Rico growled. His employer was supposed to arrive by sea, not land. The fact that his Absol was acting defensive towards the forest meant he had potentially unwanted company. "Dammit," he cursed, walking towards his jeep and reaching for his firearm, just in case. "Absol, remain on high guard," he ordered firmly. The Absol responded with a single nod, still glowering at the woodland with unwavering attention.

Suddenly, through the green foliage of the woods bordering the sandy beach, a blue and white colored jeep with a pair of sirens on top and several police logos adorning it emerged, skidding down the small hill that marked the forest's end and the beach's start. The police vehicle stopped about two dozen feet away from Rico, its occupants stepping out of it. "Freeze right there, Pokémon Hunter Rico!" Officer Jenny demanded in an authoritative tone. "Go, Arcanine!" She shouted, hurling a Pokéball forward and releasing a large canine Pokémon. It had a large cream-colored mane and tail, and the rest of the body sported a vibrant mixture of red and black stripped fur. The Arcanine looked very well-trained and had a powerful well-muscled physical build clearly made for combat. The Pokémon crouched low on all fours and let out a menacing growl at Rico.

Rico snorted at the sight, trying not to laugh. "Oh, if it isn't Officer Jenny, how cute," he scoffed sarcastically. "Listen up, girlie, cause I'm only gonna say this once. Recall your pathetic excuse of a mutt, take your little friend there, get back in your car, and leave. Otherwise I'll take great pleasure in having my Absol spill both you and your Arcanine's guts all over this beach and having him feast on them while you're still alive," he threatened, a dark grin on his features.

"Ew," Ash said, making a face.

Officer Jenny stood defiantly next to her Arcanine, her face displaying anger and determination. "Pokémon Hunter Rico, you are under arrest on the charges of Pokémon poaching, illegal trafficking of Pokémon, suspected murder, evading previous arrests and possession of a firearm," she announced with a clear tone of professionalism.

Rico paused, stared at Jenny, and then exploded into a state of raucous laughter. "Oh, tell me something I don't know," he sneered mockingly, not interested in hearing his long list of crimes. "And I think you missed some crimes you don't know of," he taunted, making Jenny growl angrily in rejoinder. "Like four or five, maybe? And I'm pretty sure you forgot littering, jaywalking, and not washing my hands after I'm done using the bathroom. Oh, and I don't recycle, and use a real gas-guzzler of a vehicle! Can't forget that!"

"Hey, you! Release those Pokémon now!" Ash screamed angrily, glaring at Rico as Pikachu's cheeks sparkled dangerously with electricity.

Rico stared at Ash incredulously. "Okaaaay… Jenny, let me get this straight…your partner's a nine year old boy?" he asked disbelievingly. "I knew the Police force was a joke to begin with, but this takes it to whole new levels. What, are they so desperate for new officers they'll pick up random kids off the street?" he jeered. He had to admit, the kid seemed oddly familiar, like he'd seen the child somewhere before, but he couldn't quite remember where.

"Hey, twerp!" Meowth called out, eyes shining with hope at the sight of the very person he had been attempting to steal from for years. "Get me outta here!" he yelled, grabbing the bars of the cage holding him and shaking them, sobbing. Despite his pleas, no one paid an ounce of attention to the Scratch Cat Pokémon.

"Surrender this instant, Rico," Officer Jenny warned, glaring daggers at the green-haired Pokémon Hunter. "It's over for you. You're not escaping from me again."

"Is that the best you can come up with?" Rico asked, holding back a chuckle. He raised his automatic firearm slightly, making Arcanine bark and growl loudly at the Pokémon thief. "I can blow your face to pieces before you can even move a muscle. So unless you want me to ruin that pretty face with a severe case of lead poisoning, get in your car and drive away. If I'm in a good mood, then I might let you leave alive," the hunter warned, his voice leaving no doubt that he would do it as his finger was secured around the weapon's trigger.

"Police Arcanine are trained to disarm criminals, Rico. Arcanine would have neutralized you before you pulled the trigger," Jenny said confidently, placing her complete trust in her loyal companion. "Now surrender already and make this easier for everyone. Unfortunately, you don't have a pretty face I can ruin with a flamethrower."

Rico responded to her comment with a savage-looking smirk. "You really want to test your Arcanine against my gun?" he asked daringly, his hands tightening their grip on his submachine gun, which was still held against his side.

Ash gulped nervously. He had witnessed weapons only a few times in the past and learned that they were very dangerous objects that should not be toyed with or underestimated whatsoever. He had to admit that he'd be terrified if it wasn't for the fact that his two psychic dragons were right behind him, cloaked of course._ 'Latias, Latios, can you take the gun away from him with your powers?' _he asked them in his thoughts so Rico would not become aware of the fact that there was an active conversation between them.

Latios narrowed his eyes as he inspected the scene. He and Latias were levitating behind Ash while remaining invisible, their psychic powers sharp, focused, and at the ready. _"We can do it easily, but there's a big problem here… the Absol. You see, they are Pokémon that are very closely related with the supernatural, especially things that are related to disasters and danger around their surroundings. He's also a Dark-type, which means if we utilize anything that relies on psychic energy, he might detect it and retaliate. That's why we're waiting for Jenny and Arcanine to be ready first. This Absol looks tough and his guard is anything but down,"_ the psychic dragon answered his trainer telepathically.

'_Absol?'_ Ash asked, confused.

"_The white Pokémon with the scythe on his head, Ash,"_ Latias answered, her eyes warily focused on the dark-type Pokémon. She couldn't help but shiver slightly at what her empathy felt from him. The Absol wasn't feeling anything… no anger, no resistance, not even excitement or lust for battle, just faint echoes of past pain. Ash nodded slightly at her response, although he was unaware of her unease at the Absol.

Officer Jenny narrowed her eyes, and her hand made a small signal to Ash, something they had discussed on their way to the beach. "Arcanine…get ready," she whispered. The canine Pokémon nodded, his eyes locked on the gun in Rico's hands.

The poacher, noticing Jenny's whisper, instantly tightened his grip on his automatic weapon as he shook his head at the officer's foolish gesture. "Don't try anything, bitch," Rico hissed threateningly.

'_Now, take the gun away! Arcanine will back you up!'_ Ash yelled in his mind. Both Latias and Latios nodded as their irises emitted a glowing shade of blue, initiating their psychic assault against Rico in an effort to deprive the criminal of his firearm. The next few seconds would be crucial.

The Absol's gaze moved towards Ash as his senses flared. The instant Latias and Latios exerted their powers, the two dragons' presence became known to him thanks to his disaster and danger sensing, and as one of his permanently executed orders by his master was to protect him at all costs without a fault, he did just that. Just as Latios and Latias' telekinetic powers reached out to disarm Rico, the Absol's mouth opened and a ringed orb of purple and black-colored energy amassed in his maw. The Disaster Pokémon reared back and then tossed his head forward violently, shooting a potent Dark Pulse towards the space his senses told him the two mysterious hidden attackers were.

Rico, upon seeing Absol respond offensively towards the challengers facing him, realized that they had decided to take offensive action against him. He clutched his gun harder and immediately began to raise it to fire at Officer Jenny and Ash. The second Rico's arm motion began, Arcanine immediately sprang to action. He leapt forward and used ExtremeSpeed, reenacting his training in disarming criminals by attacking them at unbelievable speeds before they could fire.

Latias and Latios' eyes widened in shock, as the Absol's Dark Pulse had created such a powerful dark aura that it threw their psychic powers into absolute disarray near the Pokémon and the poacher. This effectively prevented them from utilizing any Psychic-type techniques against Rico, thus negating their psychic assault. They quickly moved apart from each other, making the Dark Pulse pass harmlessly between the two siblings.

The Absol's eyes shifted slightly, seeing the Arcanine begin the attack against Rico. He made a quick judgment, either keep attacking the mysterious psychics or turn and defend against the more direct physical attack aimed at his master. The decision was made in milliseconds. With Arcanine's physical attack posing a more immediate danger, the Disaster Pokémon decided to focus on him first. Absol closed his mouth quickly, ending the Dark Pulse instantly. His body still cracking with dark energy from the previous attack, the Absol quickly shifted moves to Sucker Punch. The Dark Pulse seemed to shift into a massive shroud of darkness which instantly wrapped around Absol.

Absol then shot himself towards the incoming Arcanine, a veil of terrifying darkness enclosing him. He barely managed to get in between the Fire-type and Rico due to ExtremeSpeed's greater speed, making Arcanine skip a heartbeat in shock at the Absol's astonishing speed. Terror struck his disciplined mind when he came to the realization that with the psychic dragons' failure and Absol intercepting him, nothing would prevent Rico from using his firearm now. The two Pokémon crashed head-on violently in an explosion of darkness, with Arcanine taking the worst part of it since he was caught completely off guard. Shockwaves rippled through the sandy ground of the beach as a result of the sheer force of the collision between both Pokémon.

Latios let out a short gasp when he sensed the protective aura of darkness of Absol edging away from Rico, signaling him that now was his chance. _"Latias, get the gun! I'll get any bullets!" _he yelled out psychically as his eyes began to glow. Milliseconds afterwards, Latias' own eyes released a candid white glow.

In the narrow second the offensive and defensive exchanges of attacks between Absol, Latios, Latias and Arcanine had occurred, Rico had finished raising his submachine gun. He pulled the trigger, holding the firearm tightly in anticipation of the recoils that followed. Three loud bangs echoed along the beach as the gun opened fire. But, before it could fire more bullets, the barrel imploded upon itself and crushed the firing mechanism, courtesy of Latias' psychic powers.

Latios' eyes widened as he was left to deal with the three bullets that had been fired. As fast as his mind was, he was still a psychic in development, still being relatively young and untrained. His mental powers were still worlds apart from what they would be if they reached their full potential. To the dragon's horror, his senses completely lost track of the bullets, as he couldn't even detect them at all due to the speed they flew at. They were far too small and fast for him to stop. They were going to hit their target.

The wind unexpectedly passed by, grazing past the blue Eon dragon. It carried the same feeling as when it had guided him to the hunter's location. And to the dragon's shock, another three sharp whistling sounds echoed, followed by three small impacts that lightly made some sand ripple right in front of Ash and Jenny, making Latios freeze completely. He certainly had not done that. It had not been his powers that had stopped the bullets. It was that mystifying force yet again.

"_Great, brother! You did it! I'll go after Rico!"_ Latias praised quickly, hovering a few feet forward and moving with confidence now that Rico was no longer armed; she realized now was the time to incapacitate him for good. Latios did not reply as he was still shocked as to what had halted the bullets. While it was clear Latias thought it had been him, it certainly wasn't.

Latias' eyes began to shine brightly with a white glow as she prepared to launch a Psychic attack against the Pokémon Hunter, who was still recoiling in shock from the destruction of his prized weapon. Absol immediately eyed the invisible Latias, his senses pinpointing her location with deadly precision. Dark energy began to ripple around his furred body, sputtering like arching thunderbolts of pure blackness as he was once again coated in an aura of malice. Almost instantly, with the assistance of Sucker Punch, he crossed the distance between his master and Latias, crashing violently headfirst into the Eon dragoness.

Latias unleashed a shrilling cry of pain as the dark energy blasted her harshly, smashing her into the invisible Latios, snapping him out of his thoughts as he too screamed from the aching force of the impact, the dark energy from the Absol coursing through both of them and disrupting their invisibility. A shockwave of darkness blasted from the Absol, throwing the twins roughly into the sand behind them.

Ash and Jenny gasped while Rico stared, dumbfounded. Everything involving the Pokémon had happened so quickly the humans had barely been able to keep track of the basic details. It had been a few instants of tense counterattacks between Latios, Latias and Arcanine towards Rico's gun and Absol's defending against them. The outcome had left Rico with a completely unusable weapon in his hands, a slightly battered Arcanine rising from an indentation in the sand, and a wobbly levitating Latias and Latios, both a few dozen feet behind Ash and Jenny. Pokémon were truly wonders of nature.

Rico's jaw dropped slightly as he stared at the two dragons. "Holy shit… what the hell!?" he questioned, stammering from the sheer shock of what he was seeing. He turned to glare at Ash wickedly. "I knew I've seen you somewhere before! You're that Silver Conference brat with the Latios! Perfect! I could sell a Legendary Pokémon for millions on the black market!" the Pokémon Hunter cackled sinisterly, a depraved grin tracing his lips.

Ash growled with his fists clenched. "You're not taking my Pokémon! It's the other way around. I'm freeing all the Pokémon you've stolen!" he said determinedly.

Rico laughed loudly in reply. "Sure, kid. Absol, use Night Slash on the dragons before they get up!" the poacher commanded, pointing towards the downed but not yet out Eon twins.

"No, you don't! Pikachu, quick, hit Absol with Iron Tail!" Ash countered immediately.

The Absol nodded and sprang to action wordlessly and without objection. A force of darkness swirled wildly around the scythe that protruded from the Disaster Pokémon's head, coalescing into a sleek, solidified black veil of evil energy that made the scythe appear double its length and jaggedness. With fast and long strides, the Absol charged toward the downed dragons.

"You're mine!" Pikachu yelled as he jumped from Ash's shoulder and charged towards Absol, his tail shining a bright white as it hardened. Just as the Absol was passing the midpoint on his approach towards the twins, Pikachu lunged at him and spun, smashing a potent Iron Tail right into his midsection and knocking him off course. The Absol uttered a small grunt as he sank his knife-like claws into the sand, skidding to a stop a dozen feet away from the collision with the Electric-type. "You should have paid attention to me instead of attacking two distracted opponents, coward! Don't you have honor or something!?" Pikachu taunted, standing between Absol and the two eon siblings protectively.

"…" The Absol blinked and stared at him with a completely emotionless and uninterested stare.

Pikachu shifted uncomfortably. "You know that bad guys are supposed to make stupid boasts and comebacks after they are insulted, right? And then brag about how superior they are and how they are going to win the battle?" Pikachu said, awkwardly gazing at the Absol.

"…" the Absol said nothing again and stared at his adversary blankly.

"Okay, there's something officially wrong with this thing," Pikachu said confusedly.

"Careful," Jenny's Arcanine wheezed as he made his way back to them, sand matting his fur from the attack he had sustained. "That means he bites more than he barks," he said, wincing when dark energy rippled through his body slightly. "And he bites _hard_. Damn Sucker Punch."

Pikachu blinked blankly. "But he didn't bite you, he just tackled you while being all darkish," he said, even more puzzled than he already was.

"I was talking figuratively!" Arcanine barked back in frustration.

"Oh," Pikachu said, embarrassed.

Rico growled harshly and shifted his attention to the cracked and irreparably destroyed automatic weapon in his hands. Throwing it into the sand, he returned his focus towards Ash before savagely voicing, "Your Legendary Pokémon will be mine, kid," with a sadistic smirk.

"Rico, your gun is useless, surrender now! You've already resisted arrest, attacked a police Pokémon, and committed attempted murder of a police officer; don't make it any worse for yourself!" Jenny shouted at him, feeling slightly relieved that the criminal was now at least deprived of his killing tool.

Rico laughed loudly and shook his head before saying, "Oh, that's rich, you trying to get me to surrender on threat of further legal punishment. With a rap sheet as long and illustrious as mine, what's a few more offenses, all things considering? They'll lock me up and throw away the key, regardless, so really, I got nothing to lose by fighting you," he finished.

Jenny, unable to come up with a response, knowing Rico was right, only lowered her head and narrowed her eyes, realizing now that the only way of subduing Rico was by force. There would be no surrender from him.

Rico laughed at her feeble attempt to get him to surrender and then shook his head, much to Jenny's irritation. The poacher gave a sideways glance towards Latias and Latios, already giddily thinking about how many millions he'd get for selling them. _'I need to disable their psychic powers, and fast,' _Rico thought, analyzing the situation. As eager as he was to snare them, he was aware of the risk involved. _'Last time I messed with a psychic Pokémon it did not end well on my end, and I already lost my gun to their powers…I need to weaken and shut them down.' _He reached down and grabbed a pair of Pokéballs. He wordlessly hurled them forward, releasing a pair of Pokémon.

When the two flashes of light faded, the Pokémon from within were revealed. The first was a black and humanoid doll-like Pokémon with three spikes on its head, purple eyes with black pupils, and a zipper-like mouth. The Pokémon had long three-fingered hands, stubby legs and a yellow spiky tail. At first, the Pokémon was slightly transparent, indicating it was a ghost. After a few instants it began to solidify and became fully visible.

The second was a small Pokémon that resembled a cicada. It was mostly gray and black-colored on its body with a dull-toned yellow head and two gleaming red eyes. Two gray-colored insect arms extended from the Pokémon's chest with two inward facing yellow claws. The Pokémon had two large insect wings with triangular red tipping.

"Absol, come back here!" Rico ordered. The Absol instantly followed his master's order and ran back to him and turned to face the attackers in a line beside the two Pokémon Rico had sent out.

Ash released a soft growl from his mouth. Rico possessing this many Pokémon meant that dealing with him was not going to be as easy as he thought it'd be even with his firearm neutralized. The Pallet Town trainer pulled out his Pokédex and pointed it towards the first Pokémon, the one Latias had informed him was Absol. The miniature computer beeped, displaying Absol's image and stats on the screen as it began to explain in a monotone, robotic voice. "Absol, the Disaster Pokémon. Absol live in steep mountainous regions, and rarely venture down into areas inhabited by humans, but should an Absol be seen by humans, it is said that catastrophe is soon to follow." Ash nodded once and directed it towards the second Pokémon. The Pokédex quickly changed the displayed information and resumed its verbalization. "Ninjask, the Ninja Pokémon. Ninjask moves around at such a high speed that it cannot be seen, even while its crying can be clearly heard. For that reason, this Pokémon was long believed to be invisible." Ash winced slightly at how tough that sounded and moved on to the last one. "Banette, the Marionette Pokémon. A cursed energy permeated the stuffing of a discarded and forgotten plush doll, giving it new life as Banette," the Pokédex finished, now displaying Banette's information.

"Seems like they're tough opponents," Ash commented, gazing at each one closely for several seconds as he studied them.

Pikachu walked towards him and stood in front of him, displaying great protectiveness as he faced Rico's Pokémon. Arcanine did the same with his police trainer. "And he has a Fearow, I hate those," Pikachu added, gazing at the avian Pokémon roosting behind the Pokémon Hunter as unpleasant memories from past encounters flashed into his mind.

Latias slowly levitated towards Ash, shaking her head a couple times to rid herself of the numbing sensation of the dark energies she had been attacked with. "And there is something very wrong with those Pokémon, Ash. My empathy can't feel them correctly. They are empty, they have no feelings, no real emotions, just… shadows of them… they just willingly obey without caring for anything, like they're mindless… it's very creepy…" she said, shivering from discomfort.

"… And that means?" Pikachu asked confusedly, his eyes never leaving Rico's Pokémon for even a second.

"I have no idea," the Eon dragoness answered, much to his and Ash's dismay.

"Wait a minute, where's Tyranitar?" Ash asked, noticing the absence of the Pokémon he had been so desperately searching for.

"Doubt she'd want to fight us or serve Rico. Maybe she's in a Pokéball?" Pikachu guessed.

"Latios, can you find out where she is by reading his mind?" Ash requested.

Latios, who had just finished recovering from the painful Sucker Punch, shook his head as he approached Ash. "I haven't been able to get my mind near his. And when I tried I couldn't because a certain Absol beat me silly. And I'm not eager to try again." Ash, Pikachu and Latias collectively sweatdropped at his statement.

"Jenny, I'll be the one to tell you this time, surrender now and have the kid hand over his Legendary Pokémon, and I won't kill you," Rico warned, his voice clearly backing up the fact that he'd do it.

Ash shook his head. "I already said that I'm gonna be the one to free all the Pokémon you've captured, you crook!" he shouted, reddish eyes shining with determination.

Rico shook his head sadly with a cruel-toned laugh. "Oh well, guess I'll have to take them the hard way, typical." He faced his opponents, grinning sinisterly. "But then again, I think I prefer it this way! Ninjask, kill Officer Jenny. Slash her neck open!" he ordered, causing Ash to gasp in horror at his words.

Ninjask's claws began to glow white as energy gathered on them, increasing their length and sharpness. His wings buzzed and the next second he was gone, completely invisible from the sheer speed of his movement. The humans were unable to track the insane speed of the super fast Pokémon's movement, even to Arcanine and Pikachu it was way too fast. It seemed as if Ninjask had vanished… and then crashed into the sand behind Rico, lifting a large amount of sand a few feet in the air.

Latios glared at Rico angrily, his body now beside Jenny with his clawed arm inches in front of her neck protectively. Arcanine and Jenny gasped, barely reacting to the motion, but thankfully, the police officer was safe thanks to the dragon. Latios growled at Rico, flying a few feet forward and levitating before him defiantly.

Rico smirked. "Banette, use Curse, first on Latios and then on Latias," he said, knowing he had played the dragon right into his hands. Banette let out an inhumane and earsplitting ghostly shriek while the ectoplasm in his body began to quiver harshly as an eerie, purple-colored wraithlike glow began to surround his body. The excruciating sounds of the Banette cracking apart became audible as bright purple fractures began appearing all over the Ghost-type's body. Gradually, a sphere of black-colored ethereal energy crackling with power began to form between the Banette's arms. As the orb began to grow in size, additional horrifyingly painful sounds of the Pokémon's body being ripped to pieces echoed as chunks of the Banette's body were torn off from the ghost-type to form the Curse attack.

Latios glared at Banette, knowing the attack he was using was dangerous. He opened his mouth and spat a powerful stream of green fire in the form of a DragonBreath attack towards the ragdoll Pokémon. The Banette quickly moved to the side, evading the dragon's attack. He let out a ghostly chuckle as the Curse attack was finished. The Banette's creation of the Curse clearly took its toll on him as his body was badly torn and damaged, tattered strings and purple ectoplasm oozing from the multiple cracks and chunks of his body that were missing.

Latios narrowed his eyes, eyeing the Banette's moves carefully, not willing to allow himself to be hit with the Ghost-type attack. Suddenly, Banette disappeared from view and from his senses as the ghost turned intangible and invisible. The dragon growled, his heart racing. "Dammit!" he yelled in frustration at the lack of any indication of where Banette would attack. He was not skilled at tracking spectral beings yet.

Rico smirked at the success of his plan. "I got you this time, Latios. Just for your information, I knew you'd defend Officer Jenny from Ninjask. That was merely a ploy to bring you out of the group and into the open," he taunted. "And if it failed, at least I got the bonus of Jenny's head. Seems like you took the bait…"

A whistling sound was the only warning the Eon dragon received before Banette materialized right behind him, thrusting the orb of horrid Ghost energy right into him. Latios roared in pain as the orb sunk into his body, disappearing completely. A blast of purple Ghost energy erupted from the dragon, the energy waves pushing everyone at least a couple feet back. Like a swirling mass of lavender-toned mist, the cursed energy span around the dragon until a solid orb of Ghost power surrounded the legendary psychic dragon, glowing darkly until it all disappeared inside the Eon Pokémon. "Aaaaahhh! Noooo!" Latios cried out while clutching his chest, wincing as the energy disappeared. The Banette panted in pain and exhaustion from the technique, but managed to fly away from the dragon to gather his energy and prepare another Curse.

"Latios! Are you okay!?" Ash cried out in concern, gazing at the dragon with a worried expression.

"… Yes, Ash. Don't worry, I'm perfectly okay," Latios said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, that's good, the attack looked like it'd hurt a lot," Ash said, feeling relieved while remaining oblivious to the sarcasm in the dragon's voice.

A vein of anger pulsed on Latios' forehead. "No, Ash! I'm _not_ okay! I was being sarcastic!" he yelled angrily at his trainer. "This damned thing is messing up all my powers as well as-gyaaah!" his words breaking off as an intense wave of pain racked his body. Clutching at his chest and panting, his eyes closed through the pain, Latios just managed to grit out through clenched teeth, "-giving me constant pain! It _hurts_."

"Ah…" Ash said, sounding utterly embarrassed. Pikachu sighed and facepalmed at his trainer's cluelessness. "Anyway, we need to stop Banette! Pikachu, use Iron Tail!" Ash commanded, pointing dramatically at the ghost. Pikachu nodded and then dashed towards Banette rapidly, taking a mighty leap towards the Marionette Pokémon as his tail began to solidify into steel.

"This is for hurting Latios!" Pikachu screamed as he swung his tail towards the Ghost-type while airborne. A very loud clashing sound of steel against steel ripped through the beach as Pikachu's Iron Tail struck Ninjask's Metal Claw just a few inches in front of Banette. Pikachu gasped in surprise at the Bug/Flying-type's interception. _'…I didn't even see him move!'_ he thought, stunned, but then he realized they were making contact. Pikachu smirked at the initial advantage he had. "Making physical contact with a Pikachu is dangerous!" he yelled as he released a potent Thunder attack from his body. The Ninjask, noticing Pikachu charging the electricity, instantly pulled back while pushing Banette away as well, successfully helping the pair dodge Pikachu's electrical assault.

"Latias, DragonBreath!" Ash followed up quickly. Latias nodded and inhaled a deep breath before firing a large stream of emerald-colored flames towards the retreating Ninjask and Banette, forcing both Pokémon to speed up their pace, barely evading the dragoness' draconic strike.

"Arcanine, use Flamethrower!" Jenny yelled all of a sudden, forcing Rico to tear his eyes away from Banette, Ninjask and Pikachu and turn his attention to the rest of the group.

"Dodge!" Rico blurted out of reflex, having been completely focused on the other set of Pokémon earlier. Both Absol and Fearow moved to the sides, and Rico himself had to sidestep rapidly in order to avoid the jet of blazing flames that the Arcanine had launched. The Pokémon Hunter narrowed his eyes as he examined the situation to come up with his next move. _'Banette is charging the second Curse for the Latias. I need to make sure it hits…' _he thought, quickly analyzing the situation. Behind him, Banette was already emitting a nightmarish purple hue, more cracks and horrifying wounds tearing his ectoplasm-based body apart as he readied another Curse.

"Arcanine, use Flamethrower again!" Jenny ordered quickly, not wanting to leave Rico any time to prepare further strategies.

Unfortunately for her, Rico was already one step ahead of her. "Fearow, use Quick Attack!" the poacher countered, directing his hand towards Arcanine. The normal and flying-type Pokémon took flight and rushed towards Arcanine with the speedy move.

"Dodge that!" Jenny cried out. Arcanine closed his muzzle, cancelling the Flamethrower and quickly leaped sideways, making Fearow pass by without hitting him.

Rico turned his head slightly, gazing over his shoulder and noting that Banette's second Curse was almost ready. "Absol, use Night Slash on the Latias!" Rico ordered quickly. _'Time to put my plan in action,'_ he thought eagerly. Absol quickly charged towards Latias, his scythe lengthening as a sleek gleam of darkness surrounded it.

The moment Latios saw his sister in danger, he immediately leapt into action. "Oh no, you don't!" he yelled irately, protectiveness literally dripping from his voice. He darted towards the Disaster Pokémon in an attempt to intercept him before he reached Latias. Before Latios even managed to reach the halfway point, a blast of corrosive spectral energy exploded from him as Banette's Curse activated, making the Eon dragon roar in pain as the wraithlike essence ripped through him and inflicted tremendous amounts of damage.

"Latios!" Latias cried out in concern, turning her attention to him with a worried expression.

"Latias, the Absol! Quick, use Psychic to make a sand wall to shield yourself!" Ash called out quickly, snapping the psychic dragoness out of her distraction.

Latias gasped slightly before looking forward, seeing the incoming Absol. Her amber eyes generated a blue glow as she exerted her psychic powers into the grit below her. Instantly, a large and thick barrier of sand erected itself in front of her. The Absol extended his claws and dug his paws firmly into the sandy ground, skidding to a halt, though his preemptive measure failed as he crashed straight into the sand wall constructed by the Legendary Pokémon. However, she had paid no attention to her rear, opening her to an unexpected ambush.

Pikachu's eyes widened, knowing what was about to happen to her. "Oh, no… Latias, watch out behind you!" he warned loudly.

Pikachu's warning came too late. Latias was completely unable to react to the Electric-type's alert before Banette smashed the Curse orb into her back, creating a massive detonation of ethereal force that enveloped her body. Latias cried out as the energy began seeping into her, completely dissipating into her body. "Oh… no…" she uttered slowly, eyes widening. She let out a pained cry as the Curse inside her created a constant feeling of pain that resembled something tearing through her body at every angle.

Latios growled at Rico angrily for what the latter had just done to his sibling. "You'll pay for that," he snarled dangerously, clenching his teeth as he tried to resist the pain that the Curse attack had wreaked upon him.

Rico smirked. "Retreat for now," he said simply. Absol, Banette, Ninjask and the Fearow all went back to their master's side quickly. "I suggest you surrender now, kiddo. I just eliminated your Latias and Latios from the game. Give them up and you'll be able to walk back to your mommy on your own two legs."

Ash growled, his hands balling up into fists. "No… I'm going to make you pay…after I free all the Pokémon you've captured. I won't lose to a crook like you."

"He's better at battling and strategizing than I thought, no wonder I've never been able to catch him," Officer Jenny commented, narrowing her eyes at the criminal. "He's a smart one."

Rico shook his head sadly. "Of course I am. That's why I'm one of the top criminals in Hoenn," he boasted arrogantly. "But this battle is already mine. Curse will prevent your two psychic friends from being annoying. It'll slowly knock them out cold for me to stuff them in a cage and be on my way," the bad-mannered man laughed. All he needed to do now was buy himself more time.

"Latias, Latios, can you handle fighting with that attack on you?" Ash asked with a hint of concern, gazing at each of the Legendary Pokémon siblings.

"I think I'll be fine for a while," Latios answered as he tried to regulate his breathing at a steady and controlled pace from the nerve-shattering pain. "My powers are all messed up due to the Curse attack in me, and it inflicts a lot of pain periodically… I think I can deal with it for now, but we better not take too long," he added. The male dragon gazed at Latias worriedly. Latias huffed and nodded defiantly against the constant pain the Curse brought to her, signaling she too was ready to continue. Latios couldn't help but feel proud at her will to fight against this criminal.

Ash gazed at Rico, checking out the situation. "I agree with Officer Jenny… he's a tough opponent," he said in dismay, having expected an easier battle. _'With Latias and Latios in trouble thanks to the Banette, I need more help…' _he thought to himself, reaching towards his belt. He grabbed three Pokéballs and dropped them. With three bright bursts of light Larvitar, Phanpy and Pidgeot were released from their respective spherical devices.

Rico raised an eyebrow. _'More, eh? This brat sure is persistent,' _he thought, gazing at each of Ash's six Pokémon.

Larvitar growled angrily at Rico. The second he laid his eyes on the poacher, a firestorm of pure hatred and spite brewed inside the young infant as faint memories of his mother's tender and loving voice speaking to him while he was just an egg echoed strongly in his thoughts. Faint yet visible feelings and images of how he was maliciously separated and how thanks to the greed of this one man, he hadn't been able to reunite with her yet. All of those memories were swirling violently in the child's mind. Just as Larvitar was about to charge at Rico in a state of blind rage, Ash placed a hand on his back and halted his advance. Larvitar released a small breath and looked up at his adoptive father, eyes questioning. "Calm down, Larvitar. I know you're angry. Well, I'm angry too, but we'll beat him soon and I promise to get your mother back, so don't do anything rash, alright? We'll work together as a team and family to win this," Ash said. Larvitar sighed. As much as he'd have loved to tear Rico to bloody shreds, he nodded once and placed his trust in Ash. In addition, Larvitar had to admit that Rico's Pokémon looked tough, and he'd certainly like them to be taken out first.

Pikachu rolled his eyes in amusement. "Look who talks about not doing rash things for once," he commented, shaking his head a few times. Ash ignored him. "At least you make a nice father."

Rico blinked a few times, confused regarding the words Ash was saying to the Larvitar, but he decided to pay no heed to it. That wasn't his current interest at the moment, snagging the Eon dragons was his primary concern. "So, are you ready to fight my little slave Pokémon, runt?" Rico taunted, holding back a small laugh.

Ash gasped in shock. "Slaves!? That's terrible! Pokémon aren't meant to be enslaved, they're our friends, teammates and family, not tools or slaves, you jerk!" the young Pokémon trainer reprimanded him angrily, shaking his fist at him.

"How cute," Rico mocked, shaking his head. "I almost forgot what you stupid kids sounded like."

Latios narrowed his eyes, feeling extremely disturbed of the relationship between Rico calling his Pokémon 'slaves' and the fact that they lacked emotions, as his sister had pointed out. "I'll fight the Ninjask, he's extremely fast, just like me, so I'll be the one to keep him entertained," he said, before arching his back as he prepared to speed away.

"Okay, Latios, defeat that Ninjask!" Ash encouraged him, grinning confidently at him. Latios responded with a small nod, his trainer and friend's confidence in him reassuring him.

Rico crossed his arms. "Then so be it. Ninjask, do your job and beat that Latios into submission!" he ordered. Ninjask looked up towards Latios so he could prepare his part in the battle. But before that was possible, he was stunned to find a blur of azure mere inches from him. Unable to react due to the sheer speed at which Latios tackled him, the Bug and Flying-type was blasted backwards by the dragon. Rico gasped and turned to look opposite of the direction he was facing, seeing a large splash hit the ocean as Latios dove into it, taking the Ninjask along with him. "Damn, he's fast," the hunter muttered under his breath before turning back to look at Ash and Jenny.

Ash crouched down and leaned his head close to Larvitar and Phanpy's ears. "Okay, see those Pokémon in the cage behind the bad guy?" he whispered quickly, his voice a small murmur. Both infants looked at it and nodded. "I want you two to dig under the sand, make your way to them, and free them. We'll keep the bad guys busy," Ash whispered once more, making sure Rico couldn't hear his plans. "I trust you two to do it."

"Okay, Daddy! On it!" Phanpy cheerily answered, nodding eagerly and playfully skipping twice in the sand. Larvitar nodded quietly and jumped towards the sand in front of him, literally diving in it as he used Dig. Phanpy jumped inside the hole Larvitar had tunneled into, disappearing into it.

Rico raised an eyebrow at Ash's unforeseen action, as he had been unable to hear what he had ordered the two Pokémon to do. _'Is he planning to have them hide under the battlefield and use them for a surprise attack? If that's the case, then I'll have to keep that in mind,'_ Rico thought to himself as he pedaled backwards, giving his Pokémon more space. The hunter glanced backwards, briefly observing Ninjask and Latios' blurs as they battled ferociously with their claws and speed. _'Ninjask and Banette's Curse should drop Latios quickly,'_ he noted as he darted his eyes back at Jenny and Ash. _'I need to separate the Latias and take her out. I'm at a numbers disadvantage after all, and after both Curses, Banette will not last long,'_ he added to his thoughts as he surveyed between his opponents.

Ash and Jenny glanced at each other and did the same, backing up to give their own Pokémon maneuvering space. Pikachu, Latias, Pidgeot and Arcanine remained where they were, as did Rico's Absol, Banette and Fearow. "Latias, think you can take out the Banette quickly? It already looks tired and weak," Ash asked, briefly glancing at her.

Latias nodded unenthusiastically. "Yeah, I think so," she answered wearily.

"Absol, use Psycho Cut. Separate the Latias!" Rico ordered, pointing at the legendary. "Banette, attack her with Shadow Ball!" Both slave Pokémon immediately sprang into action. Absol's scythe discharged a shade of bright pink as it slowly collected psychic energies, and with a harsh swing of his head, a hemispherical blade of rose-tinted energy was hurled towards the dragoness, specifically aimed to force her to be separated from the group. Latias quickly flew to the side and away from the group, making the Psycho Cut pass harmlessly beside her.

As Banette began to slowly charge the Shadow Ball, Ash and Officer Jenny immediately counterattacked. "Arcanine, use Flamethrower!" the police officer called out sharply.

"Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!" Ash followed, pointing at Banette and Absol.

Rico growled. "Fearow, use Gust! Absol, strengthen it with Dark Pulse!" he countered.

"Pidgeot, use your own Gust too!" Ash rapidly ordered.

Arcanine roared fiercely as he fired a great stream of flames at the same time as Pikachu's cheeks sparkled briefly before potent bolts of electricity emanated from his yellow body. Pidgeot displayed her mighty wings and flapped them with tremendous strength, producing a powerful gale that sped up both of Pikachu and Arcanine's attacks, drastically increasing their force. Nonetheless, they weren't the only ones that exploited this tactic. Rico's Fearow mimicked Pidgeot's move with his wings, sending a Gust of his own at the incoming wave of fiery electrified air. Absol opened his mouth, quickly charging the dark energy required for his own attack. Once charged, he released a ringed beam of purple and black color, which mixed with Fearow's Gust.

The two enhanced Gust attacks, one empowered with fire and lighting and the other with darkness, crashed and reacted violently upon contact, expanding outwards in all directions as an impressive explosion of wind, fire, electricity and darkness. The blast forced Ash, Jenny, and Rico to protect their faces with their arms, grunting and pressing their feet harder against the sand to hopefully resist the unalleviated blowback of the titanic clash.

Latias narrowed her eyes. She had not forgotten that Banette was intent on targeting her with a Shadow Ball. To her dismay, the clash between the powered-up Gusts had created a cloud of dust and debris, decreasing her vision significantly. The Marionette Pokémon suddenly materialized in front of her, holding a sphere of ghostly energy in his arms. Latias reacted to this ambush by amplifying her levitation abilities to full power to dodge… but she was interrupted in the worst of times by an outburst of ghostly energy from her as the Curse cast upon her activated. Latias screeched in pain as the shadowlike power greatly damaged her mental and physical self. Using her momentary disability due to the activation of his Curse, Banette lunged forward and smashed the Shadow Ball into the dragoness's side, causing her to scream louder in pain and hurling her into the sand several dozen meters away from the group.

"Latias!" Ash cried out with concern, turning to look where he had heard her scream. He could not see her due to the low visibility, but her pain-drenched cries had been audible enough.

"She's a Legendary. She'll be fine!" Pikachu snapped at his trainer's distracted state. "Our concern is Rico's other Pokémon. Stay focused, Ash!" the electric-type reprimanded. Feeling slightly distressed, Ash returned his attention towards his own battlefield, placing his trust in the psychic dragoness to fight on her own.

"Fearow, use Peck!" Rico ordered. "Absol, back him up with Night Slash!"

"Officer Jenny, distract Absol!" Ash said quickly at Jenny, a plan already forming in his mind. "Pikachu, get on Pidgeot's back! Pidgeot, catch that Peck and use a Peck of your own!" he ordered rapidly, placing high hopes into his plot.

Pikachu smirked and nodded, already catching Ash's plan._ 'Ash may get distracted easily and be a little immature at times, but his weird battle plans always work somehow!'_ he thought as he jumped on the large Bird Pokémon's back. At the moment Pidgeot felt the small weight that belonged to Pikachu on her back, she flapped her wings and shot towards the sky, dead-set on the incoming Fearow.

Absol growled and dashed forward, eyes locked on Pidgeot as his scythe began to glimmer darkly with sinister energy, increasing its length dangerously. "Arcanine, block the Absol's path with Fire Spin!" Jenny ordered, following Ash's directions. She did feel a little irked at being ordered around by a twelve year old boy, but now was definitely _not_ the time for adult pride.

Arcanine nodded before opening his muzzle as a spiraling torrent of fire danced from within, which quickly transformed into a raging tempest of blazing heat. The Dark-type skidded to a halt and propelled himself backwards to avoid the sizzling firestorm that spiraled wildly in his path, his purely battled-trained mind knowing that jumping into such an attack was potentially dangerous.

Ash smirked, seeing his plan to isolate one of Rico's Pokémon and take it out quickly had worked. "Pikachu, Pidgeot, take Fearow out," he spoke calmly.

Rico huffed in annoyance. _'That stupid brat! He used my own trick against me! I isolated Latias and Latios and he's doing the same to my Pokémon!'_ he realized, astonished.

Fearow soared towards Pidgeot, his beak covered with solid, white-colored light and extending to considerable lengths, preparing the attack he was instructed to use. Pidgeot flew towards her adversary, eyes carefully tracking his every movement to make her strike successful. "You're going down," she hissed darkly.

"Screw you, bitch!" Fearow retorted as he flapped his wings fiercely, increasing his speed with full intent of ramming beak-first into Pidgeot with absolutely no remorse.

Pidgeot spread her wings wide open, the drag resistance they generating rapidly decelerating her, much to the Fearow's shock. She pulled her lower body forward, her feet extended with her elongated talons pointing forward. With a move of pure precision, she clenched her clawed feet around his beak before he could crash into her. The inertia of the Fearow's movement pushed Pidgeot back, but this was easily dealt with by her wings, which were broadly spread apart.

Pidgeot's own beak glowed and extended as she executed a Peck attack of her own. Pulling the other Normal/Flying-type upwards using her feet, she lunged forward with her head. Pidgeot proceeded to aim at the weakest portion of the Fearow's wing, the delicate joint in the middle of the wing, before striking her target savagely.

A cruel cracking sound followed by Fearow's muffled screeches of agony, due to his beak being forcefully closed shut by Pidgeot's feet, were heard as his delicate wing was broken by Pidgeot's beak. Pikachu scrambled up Pidgeot's back, and jumped onto the squawking and struggling Fearow. "Pidgeot, toss him to the Absol!" Pikachu shouted to her.

Pidgeot nodded and went into action. She spun in midair as a means to gain momentum and then released her grip on the badly injured Fearow, sending him and Pikachu flying straight at the Absol. The Electric-type made sure he was on the opposite end of Fearow's body when the latter smashed into the police Arcanine's residual flames from the Fire Spin he had utilized to halt Absol from interfering with Pidgeot's efforts against Fearow any further.

Rico's eyes widened in alarm as the battle unfolded before him. His Pokémon were being divided and conquered relentlessly. "Damn it!" he cursed angrily as the battle was rapidly slipping out of his favor.

"Surprise, surprise!" Pikachu shouted as Fearow crashed into Absol, making the Fearow wail louder and the Absol grunt. The electric-type's cheeks sparkled with electricity a brief second before a massive pillar of lightning erupted from him as he used Thunder. Everyone was forced to cover their eyes and look away from the sheer brightness and intensity of the attack. Absol's roars of pain along with Fearow's screams of equivalent agony were the only sounds barely audible over the booming mayhem of Pikachu's assault. Once the attack finished, Pikachu sprinted back to Ash's side, smirking at his handiwork.

"A little harsh, don't you two think?" Ash asked, feeling a little guilty at how badly they had beaten up the Fearow, who now lay unconscious and very injured on top of the Absol.

"No," both Pidgeot and Pikachu recited simultaneously, making Ash sweatdrop. As bad as the young trainer felt for the Fearow, he had more important matters to attend to.

Much to the shock of Ash and his allies, the Absol began to regain his footing from underneath the Fearow. He partially dug his scythe into the Fearow's side, making some blood ooze down his blade. Without care, the dark-type then tossed his head to the side harshly, coldly throwing the unconscious Fearow off him, not even caring for his ally's wellbeing in the slightest. He turned to face his enemies with a death-inducing expression, awaiting his next orders. "…He… stood up!? But your Pikachu's Thunder… knocked him out cold!" Officer Jenny cried out, shocked by the Absol's resistance. Her Arcanine released a small growl, his stance shifting into an aggressive one.

"That's too harsh, you know!? You could at least show some care or worry for your friend's wellbeing. You only hurt him further, you jerk!" Pikachu reprimanded the Absol, utterly disgusted by the dark-type's contemptuous action.

"…" Absol just stared at Pikachu blankly.

"… Okay, he's creepy," Pikachu said flatly.

"I really should replace that weakling with a slave Pokémon soon," Rico muttered under his breath as he recalled Fearow back to his Pokéball. He turned to look at Pikachu and Pidgeot. _'And those two are a lot stronger than I anticipated. I'm in a big number and power disadvantage right now. I need to do something or they'll overwhelm me… time to cheat and end this little game!_' he turned and began walking to his jeep. "Absol, fight those three and keep them busy!" he ordered as he walked to his vehicle. He knew slave Pokémon were trained to be extremely powerful battlers even without guidance or supervision, so we wasn't too worried about leaving Absol to his own luck, as he had already done with Ninjask and Banette.

"You're not gonna escape, Rico!" Ash yelled at him.

"I'm not going to escape, stupid brat!" Rico snapped at him angrily. "Not without Latias and Latios, that is." He glanced towards the sea, where he could see Ninjask and Latios fighting, and then glanced towards where Latias and Banette were fighting. '_Latios is too far out and his battle is speed-based, so I'll take out the Latias instead,'_ Rico thought, leering sinisterly as he reached towards the trunk of his jeep.

Absol growled, and, following Rico's order, charged at the heroes. "Here he comes!" Ash called out to his Pokémon. "Use Thunder and Air Slash!"

"Arcanine, aid them with Flamethrower!" Jenny ordered, backing up Ash's assault. The three Pokémon fired their respective attacks, which cruised rapidly towards the incoming Absol. The Disaster Pokémon slid to a halt and jumped backwards several times to dodge the moves.

Rico smirked as he pulled something out of his jeep, turning to face the group again. Rico was now holding an oddly-shaped shiny green and black rifle with a metallic finish. Ash's eyes widened at the sight of the firearm. "He… has another gun!?" he cried out, scared.

Jenny narrowed her eyes, noticing the dart with a bright red tuft in the back that Rico was loading into the rifle. "That's not a bullet gun, it's a tranquilizer rifle!" she said.

Ash blinked in confusion, having no clue what the weapon that the police officer described was. "A what?" he inquired.

"It basically fires a ballistic-style dart loaded with a powerful chemical agent to immobilize or sedate a Pokémon. It can be used to paralyze or put to sleep any kind of Pokémon depending on what compounds are used in the rounds," Jenny explained. "He intends to put our Pokémon to sleep to reduce our numbers. Typical…"

Rico walked forward, grasping his loaded rifle in his arms with confidence. "Absol, keep those three busy!" he commanded before he faced the ongoing scuffle between Latias and Banette. He lifted his rifle and began to carefully aim.

Latias had been faring well against Banette, with the Ghost-type barely keeping up due to a double use of the Curse move, putting him in an extremely poor state to go head-to-head against her. Unfortunately for the Eon dragoness, she wasn't exactly in the best of shapes either. During certain intervals, the Curse would become active and hurt her badly, chipping more of her precious energy and power while inflicting horrendous amounts of pain on her. Meanwhile, the Banette was fighting primarily on a defensive level, constantly evading and trying to buy more time to provoke more activations of its Curse.

Remaining calm, Latias took a deep breath and launched an Ice Beam attack. The beam of sapphire-highlighted subzero energy sped towards the specter rapidly, forcing the Marionette Pokémon to quickly glide sideways. She then changed to a potent DragonBreath attack, forcing the Banette to levitate away from her to dodge the jade-tinted flames.

"Latias! Watch out! Rico is gonna try to put you to sleep with a dart gun!" Ash cried out to her, warning her of the imminent danger.

Latias turned towards Rico, spotting him out the corner of her eye. "You won't hit me!" she exclaimed, fully intent on dodging the dart.

"Banette, use Ominous Wind! Keep her in one place!" Rico ordered sharply. Banette quickly flew towards Latias, arms spread, making the wind around him undulate. With a forward thrust of his arms, a titanic wave of sinister wind materialized vibrantly with lavender-colored energy and was launched at the red dragoness. Banette's powers caused the wind to circle around Latias, trapping her and making her scream out in pain as the wind slashed her harshly, the phantomlike powers in it further injuring her. Banette seized control of the energy, making it coil around the Latias painfully. It was at that moment that Curse activated yet again. A dark corona of energy ignited from within the red dragoness, making her shriek even harder from the misery it brought to her. Rico smirked when he saw Curse had frozen Latias on the spot, and lining her up in his sights, readied the shot.

Ash growled lowly, seeing that Latias was in a terrible position and was clearly not going to be able to dodge the dart on her own. She was in desperate need of assistance, and fast. _'With Banette and Rico attacking her, she'd have a hard time dodging. I need to destroy that gun… but how?' _he thought to himself, thinking of all his options. He knew Pidgeot, Pikachu or Arcanine would have to get through Absol first, and Latios was too busy dealing with the tricky Ninjask. Ash's eyes widened as an idea clicked. He closed his eyes, spreading his senses. He smirked when he sensed that his two adoptive sons were near where Rico was, right beside his jeep. "Larvitar, quick, emerge and use Rock Smash on Rico, he should be on your right!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

"One dragon down…" Rico whispered with glee as he pulled the trigger of the tranquilizer rifle. Compressed air within the gun ejected the potent dart. Completely immobilized, there was nothing Latias could do as the dart struck her in the neck, immediately injecting a large dose of sedative agents into her systems and beginning the process of neutralizing her. Seconds after he fired, the sand a few feet to his right caved in as Larvitar emerged, all too happy to follow Ash's order of punching the snot out of Rico.

"This is for my mommy!" Larvitar roared with all his might as he ran towards Rico, his arm shining white as he used Rock Smash. He jumped towards Rico, swinging his shining arm at him.

Rico gasped as he turned towards the infant's roar, seeing Larvitar already lunging at him while rearing his arm back. "What the fu-" Rico began, and out of a pure instinctual reaction, the poacher used the gun in his arms as a pseudo-shield, which was exactly what Ash had hoped for. The tranquilizer dart rifle completely shattered the second Larvitar's punch had connected with it, and the force of it was enough to make Rico fall on his back. "Absol!" Rico shouted desperately.

"Larvitar, that's enough! Continue what I asked you to do. We'll deal with Rico!" Ash shouted, seeing that Larvitar was ready to resume attacking Rico further, and worse still, the hunter's slave Absol was dashing to the aid of his master, gaining a clear lead over Arcanine, Pidgeot, and Pikachu.

As much as Larvitar wanted to stay and beat Rico to death with more Rock Smashes, he placed his trust in his daddy yet again and immediately dove into the ground, vanishing as he used Dig to reunite with the still subterranean Phanpy in their mission to free Rico's prisoners. Rico seethed in anger when he observed the Rock Skin Pokémon disappear into the sand again and his Absol come to a halt in front of him. "Dammit, I completely forgot about those two runts," he said angrily.

Ash glanced towards Latias when he saw the Ominous Wind and Curse subside, and the Banette back off. "Oh no…" he muttered in dismay when he saw the anesthetic dart lodged in the dragoness's neck.

Latias snarled and tore the empty dart out of her neck with her claws and tossed it aside. She glared at Rico, her eyes flaring with anger, which simply earned a smirk from Rico. "You're going down," the poacher taunted. "That round can easily put down a Gyarados in less than a minute. I was unsure how much to use due to you being a Legendary Pokémon, but that should be enough!"

Latias winced as she felt her energy rapidly being depleted, her eyes feeling heavy along with her mind and body slowly going numb. Each coherent thought was becoming harder to keep track of than the previous one. "N-n-no…" the dragoness whispered through half-lidded eyes as her levitation began to falter. She was defeated.

Meanwhile, Latios had been locked in combat against the Ninjask for the last several minutes. As much as the dragon hated to admit it, this battle was turning out to be a lot more complicated than he initially thought, specifically because the bug and flying-type was speedier, smaller, and had a lot more maneuverability than he possessed. Latios had sustained more damage so far since many cuts and gashes graced his body. This was thanks to the courtesy of repeated attacks from the Ninjask's claws, such as Fury Attack, X-Scissor and Shadow Claw.

The fact that Latios' greatest asset, his formidable psychic powers, were completely ineffectual and he was stacking constant damage from the Banette's Curse attack was only making the battle all the tougher for him. Latios dove into the ocean with a moderate splash, using it as cover to move underneath the Ninjask's airspace. After rapidly moving some distance away, he surfaced and rocketed towards the Ninjask as his wings began to glow and solidify in the form of Steel Wing.

The Ninja Pokémon reacted rapidly, suddenly blurring and disappearing completely from the dragon's line of sight and easily skirting around the attack. Without wasting a single moment, Ninjask reappeared behind Latios as his wings began to buzz at ridiculous speeds, sending out several shockwaves in the form of Bug Buzz. Latios suddenly darted out of the path of the waves, making the sonic attack disappear into the ocean harmlessly. "You're not the only one with high speed!" Latios taunted as he turned around, spewing out a powerful stream of DragonBreath. To the dragon's disappointment, the Ninjask effortlessly dodged once again.

Latios sighed as he felt the familiar surge of malevolent energy within him. "Oh, great. Here we go again…" he muttered sadly, bracing for the incoming pain. A huge blast of ghoulish essence surged through him, enveloping him in a sphere of violet energy that incurred a great amount of pain and damage to the dragon, his screams echoing across the battlefield. The Eon Pokémon panted when the wave ended. "I need to end this fast…" he commented to himself with a growl, aggravation welling up from within.

He glanced towards Ash and his friends to make sure they were fine… only for his eyes to widen in shock and fear when he saw Latias slowly collapse in the sand, completely unconscious. The mere sight of that was enough to throw him into a state of uncontrollable anger. "I'm going to rip him to pieces for that!" he yelled before charging back towards the shore, pure anger clouding his mind and destroying his self-control. Ninjask took the dragon's distraction as an opportunity to strike him. The dual claws in his forelegs began to emit an eerie glow of black as they collected energy for a Night Slash attack.

Latios had anticipated that the Ninjask would try to attack him while he had his back turned and had already prepared a counterattack in his mind. Latios quickly dove towards the ocean, submerging beneath the waves. The blue dragon craned his neck upwards and spat an Ice Beam, freezing the seawater directly above him. Once that was finished, the Eon Pokémon's blade-like, streamlined wings began to solidify and glow white as he used Steel Wing. The blue-colored dragon then charged upwards, using his powerful levitation force to generate a massive speed spurt directly into the sheet of frost over him.

The Steel Wing easily cleaved through the ice in an explosive collision that shattered the ice, sending a myriad of icicles and ice shards directly at the space above the dragon. The Ninjask buzzed in pain as the attack battered him and knocked him away. Once the Ninja Pokémon was stunned by the move and sent away, the Eon dragon resumed his rapid angry charge towards the beach. _'You are _so_ dead, Rico…' _was the only thought swirling through his hate-filled consciousness.

Completely oblivious of the Eon Pokémon's rapid approach, Rico laughed mockingly. "Oh, well. I might have lost my rifle, but at least I took down one of those pesky dragons," he stated. "Kid, you should really give up." Absol and Banette gathered near Rico, awaiting their next orders.

Ash shook his head once in response to the poacher's claim as he returned Latias to her Pokéball, the red beam of energy sucking the downed dragoness back into her Pokéball. "You were amazing, Latias. Take a good, long rest," he whispered comfortingly to her Pokéball as he tucked it back to his belt. He chuckled when he saw Latios approaching. "You're in _big_ trouble. Beating Latias was a bad mistake Rico, and you'll pay for it. Her brother will make sure of that."

Pikachu nodded with a small smirk. "Don't mess with Latias if you value breathing," he added.

Absol's senses flared when the angry dragon approached, causing him to bark and glance toward the incoming dragon, alerting Rico of his presence. "What!?" Rico cried out, shocked. "Ninjask should have beaten the crap out of it!"

Ash narrowed his eyes, an idea rapidly forming in his mind now that Rico was distracted due to the appearance of Latios. "Officer Jenny, please tell Arcanine to go around Rico from his right. Pikachu will take the left and Pidgeot the front," Ash said.

Officer Jenny nodded. She ultimately decided to place her trust in Ash, seeing as he was the one that was doing most of the fighting with his Pokémon. "Arcanine, do what he requested!" she commanded.

Pikachu, Pidgeot and Arcanine all nodded before splitting up and began to round the distracted Rico, whose back was turned to them. Arcanine began circling around towards Rico's right and Pikachu going towards the left, while Pidgeot went airborne above him.

"Absol, use Dark Pulse on the Latios! Banette, use Shadow Ball!" Rico ordered rapidly, pointing towards the rapidly incoming Latios. This way, he was hoping to knock him out decisively with two simultaneous attacks. Banette put his ragged-doll arms together, rapidly charging the orb of shadow energies. The Ghost-type flung the shady orb forward as the Absol began to charge a ringed beam of darkness.

Latios roared in anger, a pure and bright light beginning to swirl around his streamlined body. The Curse that had plagued him for so long began to activate again, seeking to further ravage the dragon physically and spiritually. However, the Eon Pokémon roared even louder as his eyes flashed with frenzy, and with incandescent light surrounding his body as his power skyrocketed, his Luster Purge became so powerful even the Curse was unable to contain it. The dragon tossed his head forward and fired the eye-blinding force of psychic energy the instant the Absol also released his Dark Pulse. The sand below both beams cleaved apart from the sheer power both offensive moves possessed.

Pidgeot, who had been flying over them, realized that Latios' Luster Purge was in a terrible disadvantage against the Dark Pulse, plus, Banette was holding a Shadow Ball in his arms, waiting to use it. Thus, the avian felt the need to aid her dragon friend. Her sharp eyes narrowed dangerously as a wicked idea crossed her mind. _'This is for Latias!_' she thought as she used Aerial Ace and dove towards Rico, Absol and Banette. The Bird Pokémon's movement was so blindingly fast and came from a blind spot so none of the three were able to react to it until it was too late. The second Pidgeot neared the sand, she spread her wings wide to slow down her descent as she landed in the middle of the enemy group heavily. After making contact with the ground, she activated Steel Wing and then twisted around while flapping her white-shining wings with tremendous force right into Banette's back.

The ghost let out a cry of surprise as he was swatted forward, completely taken off guard by Pidgeot's sudden attack and making his Shadow Ball disappear. The ghost glanced sideways as two very familiar beams of energy, one of a candid white light and the other of a black and purple energy, rapidly approached him from both sides. It dawned onto him what had happened. Pidgeot had tossed him right in the path of both Latios and Absol's attack. The ghost released an otherworldly screech of utter pain and suffering as the Luster Purge and Dark Pulse collided into him, utterly destroying and tearing through his already damaged body and ectoplasm and obliterating most of his remaining energy. The resulting explosion of light and dark energy forced everyone to shield their eyes.

Not to be fazed by a simple flash or by the fact that Banette had just been mortally wounded before his eyes, Rico's Absol immediately took action against Pidgeot as she represented a direct threat to him and Rico. Absol's scythe began to glow a faint shade of white as wind began to spiral and twist violently around it, and with a quick sideways motion of his head, a crescent blade of energy surrounded by blistering winds was quickly fired at point blank range right into Pidgeot's midsection.

The Flying/Normal type cried out as she was forcefully sent flying backwards from the strike, but her face hardened as she extended her wings to stop herself. "You'll need a lot more than that to take me out," she taunted determinately.

Once the flash of energy from the collision of Absol and Latios' attacks was over, Ash smirked when he saw Arcanine, Pikachu and Pidgeot were surrounding Absol in a triangular position, just like he had planned. "Pidgeot, use Giga Impact! Pikachu, use Iron Tail, and add electricity to it! Let's finish this battle already!" Ash ordered, shouting dramatically and excitedly, knowing this would take Absol out for sure.

Officer Jenny caught up with the plan rapidly and followed up with her own move for her Pokémon partner. "Arcanine, help them with Flare Blitz!" she bellowed.

Pidgeot, Pikachu and Arcanine immediately attacked without hesitation or mercy. Absol never stood a chance; Pikachu sprinted towards the Disaster Pokémon, his tail hardening and shining brightly as he used Iron Tail and soon after that, bolts and arcs of electricity began to spark from the tail as Pikachu added his elemental power to it. Pidgeot flapped her wings and flew towards the Absol, streaks of golden energy surrounding her, followed by a mighty veil of lavender energy. Arcanine dashed towards the Disaster Pokémon at the same time, spewing out flames that rapidly coated him, turning him into a burning projectile with explosive force.

The Absol glanced around in all directions as the three Pokémon approached rapidly, their attacks shining and blazing brightly with power. None of the hundreds of battle strategies and plans the Absol had carved into his skull could prepare him for a way to get out of this, and with his master still shaken from the Luster Purge and Dark Pulse collision and thus unable to give any order to him… The Absol was left hopeless and all alone.

The combined attacks smashed into the Absol with inexorable force and precision, creating yet another potent explosion of energy. The detonation displaced a large amount of sand and forced everyone, even Latios, to guard their eyes again and be pushed backwards. For several instants, everything was a confusion of the attacks detonating and countless beams of energy blasting outwards until everything went quiet. An additional plume of dust and smoke obscured the battlefield as a result.

Latios blinked, gazing at the damage done. "Wow, talk about power," he mumbled. He shook his head as his psychic powers started to reactivate and feel normal now that, with the Banette defeated and his own Luster Purge's cleansing, the Curse was gone from him. Still, the psychic dragon could feel exhaustion and pain riddled all over his body and mind. It was clear he was very tired and injured. "Huh, where is the Banette?" he wondered, gazing around and looking for the ghost that had caused him and his sister so much suffering. He couldn't see or sense the ghost anywhere nearby. "Maybe he wandered away or was sent flying somewhere from the blow he took… oh well," he mumbled, putting it out of his mind.

As the smoke and dust began to clear and settle, the three Pokémon that had attacked Absol slowly became visible. They all had some small injuries marring their bodies due to the collision and nature of the triple attack they used and were all panting, but overall they looked fine. In the center of the triangle the three Pokémon made was a medium-sized sand crater, inside of which was a knocked-out Absol. "Oh, hello Latios," Pikachu said as the Eon Pokémon glided closer. "You're not all angry and pissy about Latias anymore are you?"

"I'm still pissed, but I'm no longer blinded by rage over it. Rico is defeated, we'll deal with him soon enough, no need to go out-of-control over it," Latios answered.

"Good. You scare me when you lose control like that," Pikachu said, shaking his head. "Hey, what happened to the ghost?" he questioned, looking around for the Banette.

"I don't know," Latios replied, glancing around, along with Pikachu. "When Absol and I blasted him, he simply disappeared. Maybe the blast flung him away… or killed him, I don't know."

Pidgeot blinked in confusion. "Aren't Ghosts technically dead already? You killed something that's already dead?" she asked.

"Technically, you tossed him into the attacks, Pidgeot," Pikachu said, making Pidgeot flush.

Latios shrugged. "I don't know how Ghosts work, so I have no idea what happened. Anyways, he's not our worry anymore," he said before glancing downwards at the defeated Absol. "And neither is he."

Rico released a few harsh-sounding coughs, using his arms to clear the sand out of his face and neck. He slowly stood up, feeling a bit dizzy from the blast, but aside from a couple of singed hairs and charred bits of his vest, he was fine. "What the hell is up with that kid's Pokémon!?" Rico exclaimed in frustration. They were certainly a lot tougher than he could have ever expected. He gazed up and froze at the sight that greeted his eyes. Pidgeot, Arcanine, Pikachu and Latios were all around the crater in which his defeated Absol rested. _'If the Latios is here… that means he beat Ninjask… and I saw Banette and Fearow being destroyed… that means…'_ His face went pale as the full realization of what that meant struck him. He had lost. He had no more Pokémon or guns left. He was at the complete mercy of the kid and Officer Jenny now. _'Oh shit…,' _he thought, feeling horrified. He turned around to make a cowardly run towards his jeep as a last attempt to flee with his skin intact, but Officer Jenny, Larvitar, Phanpy and Ash didn't allow that to happen. All of them blocked his path to the vehicle.

"As I was saying before you decided to make this complicated, you are under arrest, Rico. It's all over," Officer Jenny said confidently, her tone authoritative and firm. In one of her hands was a pair of handcuffs.

Rico growled. "Oh, no, it's not over yet! I still have hostages!" he declared boldly as he reached for his vest and took out a small remote control from one of the pockets. "With this, I can kill all the Pokémon in my cage with one deadly electric shock! So stand aside or I'll kill them all!" he shouted defiantly, putting his finger on the button of the controller.

"Ah," Ash said, not really worried. "You mean those Pokémon?" he asked, pointing towards a long file of liberated poison-type Pokémon slowly moving out of the beach and disappearing into the woods.

Rico looked where Ash was pointing at and then sighed, utterly dismayed. "Yeah, those Pokémon…" he said bitterly as he let the remote control drop to the sand.

Ash smiled, crouching down and petting Larvitar and Phanpy on their heads. "Good job, kids. I'm very proud of you both," he praised them. The two kids nodded happily and pressed to their daddy's touch.

Officer Jenny smirked as her shadow was cast over the defeated poacher. "So, what do you think of my 'nine-year old sidekick'? Weren't you making fun of him earlier?" she taunted.

"Go to hell, you bitch!" Rico snarled back.

"No, that's your trip, not mine," Jenny rectified him. "A hell called prison, that is." Rico growled angrily at her statement. Latios, Pidgeot and Pikachu made their way towards their trainer, joining his side. Arcanine, however, remained behind Rico to keep him trapped.

Latios glanced towards the sea. "With my psychic powers, you are no match to me," he said darkly, his eyes emitting an intimidating glow. Unbeknownst to everyone, the Ninjask was rapidly making their way to them. Latios had only stunned and hurt him with the ice chunks, but the Flying/Bug-type was still capable of battling. Latios smiled sinisterly as he grabbed thousands of individual grains of sand with his mind, and quickly calculated the exact moment to strike. _'This will put him out for good.' _

Ninjask buzzed as he rushed at massive speeds back to the group, claws shining in preparation for a Night Slash attack as he executed his order of protecting his master at all costs, unaware of his impending doom. Latios used his senses to pinpoint the Ninjask's moving position, and when he was in the right spot, Latios attacked. Instantly, thousands of grains of sand shot like bullets from the sandy beach and right in the Ninjask's path. While the bug's exoskeleton protected its main body from damage, the thin membranous wings were not. They were instantly shredded by the sand grains. With its wings completely destroyed, the Ninjask collapsed to the sand, crashing and skidding a couple of feet before coming to a total stop. The Bug/Flying-type struggled and buzzed futilely as it tried to get up, but its body went limp the instant Latios's eyes glowed. Within seconds, the Ninja Pokémon fell into unconsciousness. "There, all done," Latios coolly spoke, turning to gaze at Rico.

Ash winced. "A little harsh, don't you think?" he said, glancing at Latios unhappily.

"Sorry, Ash. But I'm not in a good mood right now," the dragon answered, his agitated voice barely concealing a growl.

Ash frowned but didn't say anything else to the Eon Pokémon. He stepped forward, gazing at Rico with hard eyes, which looked odd since he was a kid staring off an adult, and a dangerous one at that. "Where is Tyranitar? Do you have her?" he demanded sharply.

Rico blinked at his sudden question. "Huh? That's an odd thing for you to mention," he commented, rather freaked out. How did the kid know he owned a Tyranitar a week or so ago? Didn't the kid mention Tyranitar back before the battle started?

Ash growled. "Answer me!" he yelled angrily, his voice quivering. Behind him, Latios and Larvitar's glares hardened considerably into murderous expressions.

Rico let out a low-toned chuckle. "All right, I did have a Tyranitar several days ago, a week maybe, but it was too much trouble to handle. Controlling it was an absolute nightmare, so I sold it to Team Magma and used the cash I received to buy myself a trio of Slave Pokémon and some new equipment. It was useless, so I got rid of it," the poacher answered, his voice hiding a sick taint of pleasure. "Just like I'll get rid of you now, kid!" he shouted as he reached towards his vest, taking out a small pocket knife. In an act of spite, he tried to attack the trainer that had defeated him.

Fortunately, attacking Ash was way out of Rico's capabilities. Before his attempted attack was even halfway in its deadly cruise towards Ash, Pidgeot's Steel Wing, a thick psychic shield courtesy of Latios, and a jumping Pikachu with an Iron Tail blazing brightly were already there to stop the poacher's unexpected assault. Pikachu swatted the knife away from Rico's hand with the Iron Tail, sending the weapon flying sideways and into the sand harmlessly. Seeing the poacher disarmed, Latios lowered the psychic shield and Pidgeot lowered her Steel Wing, but both still remained highly protective of Ash.

"How dare you!?" Larvitar roared, tears of pain and sorrow dripping down his eyes. He charged at Rico and jumped, his arm glowing white with Rock Smash. Rico let out a scream of pain as he was punched in the chest by the strongest Rock Smash Larvitar had ever done in all his life. All his love for his mother and his hatred for poachers were packed into a single attack that discharged all those feelings right into Rico.

Rico hacked up blood, which made his screams come out in gurgles. He fell backwards onto the sand, clutching his badly injured chest as he winced pitifully in pain. Several ribs were easily shattered, and in addition, some internal organs had been damaged by the angered child. Had it not been for Rico's protective vest, the extent of the damage would have surely been lethal. Jenny and Arcanine gasped.

Larvitar collapsed face first into the sand, loud cries and wails accompanying the tears that streamed down his cheeks. It was just too painful for the child. Just a few hours ago he had been so hopeful when he heard there was a possibility of rescuing his mother, every minute that passed was a ton of hope that was added to his failing spirit, and now, all of that had collapsed in a single instant. His mother wasn't rejoining him today. Memories of her tender and loving voice speaking to his egg filled the child's memory, only for them to be gone, replaced by the hopelessness that she wasn't there. Ash didn't even spare Rico a glance, and immediately crouched down to hug the weeping infant, pressing against him and offering the kid his support. Larvitar cried harder, pressing against the only true parental figure he had at the moment.

Latios snarled, glaring down at Rico with cold, merciless eyes. "I am going to kill you very painfully and slowly… you will suffer," he said darkly, the dragon's eyes giving off a faint blue hue, not caring in the slightest that Officer Jenny and Arcanine were watching.

"Latios, don't," Ash said, looking up at the dragon. "Killing him won't heal Larvitar or get us his mother back," he said firmly. "He is a bad person, and we all hate him, but that is not a reason for us to kill him. We are better than him."

Latios sighed, frustration welling up in him. "Ash, let me end it and be done with it! We all want him dead and I'd be damned if anyone wants him alive. Sometimes, it's bad to be as sparing and forgiving as you are. Remember the fact that this man was more than prepared to take your own life, purely out of spite," the dragon countered, eyes narrowing.

Ash closed his eyes. "Latios, we've had this argument before. No, I will not excuse you killing someone, even in this situation. Rico is arrested now, he'll be sent to jail, where he belongs. Latios, just… don't… okay?" he said, his arms wrapped around the crying Rock/Ground-type infant Pokémon. "I love Larvitar, but killing Rico isn't going to bring us his mom."

Latios released a breath of dismay and turned away, completely frustrated and exasperated. "Fine…," he sighed, upset with his trainer.

Ash tried to pick up Larvitar, but recoiled at the fact that the child was very heavy. Latios released a small bit of his energy, helping Ash cradle the child with his mental powers. "Shh, Larvitar. I'm so sorry we won't get your mother back today… I really am, but… you still have us, your family…" Larvitar clutched Ash's shirt tightly, burying his head into his chest and only cried harder, impotence and helplessness at his inability to bring his mother back ripping the child's emotions apart with each moment that passed.

Pikachu and Pidgeot looked at the child with sad expressions before turning to Rico with fierce glares of anger as Jenny handcuffed him and took him into custody. "Let's go, Ash, back to the Pokémon Center. Latias is knocked out and Latios looks very bad too, and Pidgeot and I could use some recovery," Pikachu suggested. "There's no reason to stay here with Rico any longer."

Ash sighed but nodded in agreement. "Officer Jenny, we're leaving," he spoke to the police officer.

Officer Jenny nodded. "Alright, Ash. I have this situation under control. I'll take Rico to a hospital in Rustboro and then get him ready to be transferred into a penal facility, though you may be called upon to give a statement and testify at a later date," she announced, and then smiled slightly. "Thanks a lot for your help, I would never have defeated and captured Rico without your assistance. I'm sorry for doubting you."

"It's okay," Ash replied, returning a half smile. "Always glad to help. What about them?" he asked, glancing at the defeated Ninjask and Absol.

"I suspect they are what are known by criminals as 'slave' Pokémon. It's such a horrible and sad fate for them, but I'll take them to special rehabilitation centers to try and get them back to normal. Don't worry about them," Officer Jenny answered as she took some Pokéballs off Rico's belt and recalled the beaten mons. She frowned, noticing Banette was still missing. "Hmm…one is still out there…I'll have to send some officers to look for it once I get back to the station. In its current condition, it won't last long out in the wild."

Ash frowned, not liking the sound of that. But, as much as he was curious to hear more about those Pokémon, he had a feeling more information was only going to anger him further. Plus, his beloved Larvitar was his top priority now. "Good-bye, Officer Jenny," Ash said before looking at Latios. "Let's go."

"Okay." The Eon Pokémon nodded once, his face still reflecting his unhappiness. Latios lowered his neck, slid it between Ash's legs, and lifted upwards, sliding the trainer onto his back. A quick exertion of his psychic powers lifted Pikachu and Phanpy up and then deposited the Electric-type on Ash's shoulder and the Ground-type in front of the trainer.

"Let's go, Latios… Larvitar needs to recover," Ash said to him. Latios nodded and began to fly in the direction of the Pokémon Center in a sedate pace.

"Hey, what about us!?" Meowth hollered loudly, shaking the bars of the cage he was trapped in roughly while sobbing. "Get me outta here!" he wailed.

"We're trying!" Arbok snapped as he resumed trying to bend the steel bars with his muscular tail, but it was all proving unsuccessful in freeing the Normal-type.

Pidgeot sighed and glided over to her adversaries. Arbok and Weezing immediately cowered backwards at the sight of the massive avian approaching them. "Relax. I'm not going to hurt you guys," she assured them, her tone passive and relaxed. She lifted one wing high above Meowth's cage as it began to glow brightly with her use of Steel Wing. She then brought down the wing _hard_. The cage split apart without much effort the second Pidgeot's blow connected.

"Ya know, it's a lot better to have ya on our side than against us," Meowth commented as he stepped out of the cage, still remembering how Pidgeot had proved to be too strong for them when they fought her and the rest of Ash's team at Petalburg City. Plus, memories of dozens of fights against her when she was still a Pidgeotto back in the Kanto region were still fresh in Arbok, Weezing and Meowth's minds.

"If you guys didn't try to constantly steal Ash's Pokémon, I assure you we wouldn't be on opposite sides so often," Pidgeot replied truthfully. "It is completely up to you and your trainers if you desire to be our enemies. Anyway, follow us back to the Pokémon Center." Without another word, she flapped her wings and rejoined Latios and Ash. Arbok, Weezing and Meowth glanced at each other and then quickly followed the Latios, who was thankfully flying rather sedately, allowing them to keep up with him, barely. They still kept their distance from him, just in case. They knew Latios had a foul temper that they didn't want to mess with.

Back on Latios' back, Ash rubbed Larvitar's head tenderly. The kid's sobs quieted down lightly, but it was clear he was still very badly shaken up. "It's… not fair…" Larvitar whimpered between sobs. "I want my mommy…"

Ash frowned sadly, feeling completely torn at the sight of his child in such a terrible emotional condition. "I know you do, and I wish that I could do something about it… but we… can't," he said miserably. "We were too late." He shook his head, trying to clear away the feeling of impotence that dawned on him. "But Larvitar, I promise you that one day we will find her. Rico said she is with Team Magma, and when we know more about them, we'll take them down and rescue your mother too. Larvitar, you are my adopted son. I feel… weird, to be a father to you and Phanpy when I'm only twelve years old myself, but I promise I will always love you as a father would. I can't replace your mother in your heart, but I'll still do my best."

"Larvitar, if it makes you feel better, I know we can't fill the hole in your heart your mother left, but we are your family in every way that matters. We love you and will always look out for you. Whenever you are sad, scared, hungry, in need of advice, or simply in need of listening ears, we are always there for you, because we are your family," Latios said tenderly, his voice filled with a caring kindness that normally only Latias would be a target of.

"We all love you, Larvitar," Pikachu said, smiling down at him. "We might not be your mother, but each and every one of us will always look out for you just like she would have done."

Phanpy nodded. "Yes, brother Larvitar. We are brothers and nothing will change that, even if I also didn't know my parents…Ash is my true and only daddy and he loves me and you a lot! We are a family, and families always stick together until the end!"

Pidgeot, who had caught up to them a few minutes ago, nodded and contributed her own thoughts. "Larvitar, I've been a mother figure for several Pidgey when I was flock leader back at Kanto. I understand how important a mother's love is. And I feel terrible you lack that, but know that each and every day, we will all try to make up for Tyranitar by loving you just like she would have."

Larvitar's eyes filled with tears again. "Uncle Latios… Uncle Pikachu… Auntie Pidgeot… Brother Phanpy… Daddy…" He gazed up at Ash. The trainer smiled and gently wiped Larvitar's tears away with his thumbs. "But… my mother…" he stuttered sadly while looking down, still heartbroken.

"Larvitar, I perfectly understand the emotions that you feel," Latios began, letting out a slow breath as his own painful memories were brought up. "Just like you, I had friends who posed as my family and helped me grow up and mature in place of my parents."

"You… did?" Larvitar said, confused, still clinging to Ash's shirt tightly.

"Latias and I are orphans. Our father died before we hatched… and our mother… we never knew who our mother was. Just like you, Larvitar, we had to grow up without knowing either of our parents… with just friends helping us and taking care of our needs when necessary," the dragon said, his voice reflecting a bit of his own sadness. "But look at me and Latias now. Our childhood was anything but easy, but even so, we're free of it now. We still have dozens of questions plaguing our childhood memories, but both of us are, at least to some degree, well both in body and spirit at the present."

Larvitar shook his head, wiping his tears in Ash's shirt. "Still… I want my mommy…" he said, his little voice despairing and shaky.

Latios nodded. "I know you do, and I am not trying to justify anything. I am only saying how we, your family, love you as a whole. And how some of us truly understand what you feel. And that no matter what happens you will _always_ have a family willing to receive you with open arms. Us."

"It's not fair… why… why can't I meet her and be happy with her… like so many other children are…?" Larvitar lamented sadly.

"Unfortunately, life is rarely fair, Larvitar," Latios said with a slow shake from his head. "The best we can do is move forward in spite of the hardships it flings at us."

"And Larvitar," Pidgeot began, moving closer to him. "You don't have to cope with it alone. You have us, your family."

Pikachu nodded. "We'll be there for you all the time, because that's what families are for."

Larvitar smiled softly, letting out a small sob, and buried his head in Ash's shirt once more, some tears still needing to be shed by the very emotionally wrecked child. "Thank you… thank you… everyone…"

"You're welcome, Larvitar," Ash returned with a gentle smile. "And it's not just us, Larvitar. You also have Latias, Bianca, Brock… You have a full family to love you and to care for you."

"Just like how friends helped pose as our family and helped raise me and Latias since we were hatchlings, we will help you all the way, Larvitar. And if necessary, into your adulthood too," Latios said firmly. "Of course, we certainly hope to rescue your mother way before that."

Larvitar glanced at all his family. Pikachu, Pidgeot, Phanpy, Latios and Ash. "Uncle Latios?" he asked with a small voice.

"Yes, Larvitar?" Latios answered, glancing back at him.

"Who… who were your family-friends that raised you?" Larvitar asked curiously, leaning into Ash's chest for support.

Latios sighed, remaining quiet for a few seconds before answering. "Several Legendary Pokémon…" he answered, his voice trailing off. "I'm sorry, but I'm sure you're aware that Latias and I don't exactly like to talk much about our history in Alto Mare…"

"Why not?" Ash asked, curious. Ever since he had met Latias and Latios and gotten closer to them, he had often asked questions about their past and their childhood, but always, both siblings were strongly defensive of their past and their secrets. The only time he had learned something new and significant about their past was when they had met Ho-Oh back at the Johto region before Ash embarked on his new journey to Hoenn. Maybe today was the day he might receive the opportunity to learn something new.

"As you know, we had a very complicated childhood, with our father being dead since the day we were born. I've had plenty of arguments and verbal fights with Ho-Oh and a couple of other Legendaries about many topics. Things like why they never answered me when I asked them who my mother was… or why they never let me and Latias outside of Alto Mare's city boundaries, telling us to keep guarding the Soul Dew so fiercely. Why they sometimes put so many restraints and rules on us. Some things are very complicated, Ash. There were times I cried for nights, times I wished to leave Alto Mare with Latias and find a new home, but still, something always compelled me to remain where I lived and protect Alto Mare and my father's soul," Latios explained, shaking his head once. "They're all very complicated things that are why I don't like to talk about our past. Still, past all those arguments, they were all still my friends and family who helped raise me and Latias since we were babies."

"Who were your friends, your family?" Larvitar asked, curiously, listening in on the dragon's tale. He truly felt Latios could connect to him, someone who truly understood exactly how he felt deep in his soul.

"Well, I've told you of Ho-Oh. And a small meeting I had with Kyogre, though she's just an occasional friend. There are several more Legendaries that kept watch on us, visited us _very_ frequently and helped raise us. Ho-Oh was the main one, but she was never alone in that role," Latios explained.

Pikachu and Ash both listened in, very interested. "Think you can tell us a bit about them? You can trust us, Latios," Ash requested, smiling. In his arms, Larvitar wiggled and pressed up to him.

Latios sighed. "Only if Latias agrees to it when she wakes up, and even so, I don't think I want to talk about _all_ of them, alright?" he said. Ash, Pikachu, Phanpy and Pidgeot nodded. Latios frowned, his mind bringing back memories of the Legendaries he knew, Legendaries that alongside Ho-Oh did their best to make their status as orphans less painful.

"Let's return to the Pokémon Center faster. I'm sure Bianca and Brock are worried sick already," Pidgeot suggested. At Ash's nod, Latios sped forward, with Pidgeot accelerating to match his faster pace as well, which was quite a challenge for her.

"Hey!" Meowth screamed as he watched the psychic dragon speed away. Suddenly, Meowth, Arbok and Weezing were surrounded in a blue outline and dragged along by the dragon's psychic powers.

Larvitar gazed at Latios, his eyes thoughtful for a moment. "Uncle Latios, thanks… for everything… please… one day, you'll get my mommy back, right?" His voice was small but hopeful. His eyes were still stained with tears.

"I promise I will," Latios said firmly, a painful ache in his heart lingering at how badly this ordeal had shaken Larvitar up, how hopeless and broken the kid looked. "I hope that talking about our past makes you feel better Larvitar, so you can see that your friends can truly be your family. Okay?"

Larvitar nodded slowly, letting the feeling sink in. "Okay, uncle Latios." The Rock Skin Pokémon felt a lot better now, because, as he realized, his friends, no, his family were a lot more precious than he had taken them for. Perhaps he could truly get over the ordeal about his mother, but still, he knew deep in his heart he would always mourn for her.

Latios frowned as he picked up the child's thoughts. _'Rico will pay dearly for this. Ash, I am _very _sorry for this. But what you don't know won't hurt you. I know what it is to grow up without a mother, and I can't stand Larvitar's pain. Ash, forgive me for going against your word,' _the dragon thought to himself as he lowered his head. His eyes were already glowing due to dragging Team Rocket's Pokémon behind him. No one would suspect what other reason he would use his psychic powers for. This was a secret only he and no one else would ever learn of.

Meanwhile, driving in a completely opposite direction to the one Latios was flying in, Jenny was driving her jeep with the handcuffed Rico on the backseat towards Rustboro City's hospital. Rico was constantly moaning and grunting from the pain of his injuries, exasperating Officer Jenny. The officer was greatly relieved that such a dangerous criminal was finally captured, and she hoped that the coast guard and police she dispatched to the area would arrest his employer, too. '_Wonder who hired him, anyway…' _she thought.

Suddenly, Rico's moaning stopped completely. The poacher froze as Latios's presence entered his mind. Quickly, Latios read his mind, checking for anything useful regarding Slave Pokémon and the villainous organizations known as Team Aqua and Team Magma. Once Latios had read and memorized everything that was to his benefit…he finished what he had planned from the start. The dragon went for the kill.

Rico screamed in pain, startling Officer Jenny and her Arcanine, as Latios telekinetically crushed his chest, breaking all the remaining ribs and puncturing his vital organs. The poacher's death was nearly instantaneous. Officer Jenny stopped the vehicle and glanced backwards at the poacher, who now lay unmoving in the back seat, a mixture of blood and saliva dripping from his mouth.

Officer Jenny gulped, wondering what had happened. She had seen the extent of Rico's injuries, but what the Larvitar had done shouldn't have been enough to kill him. But then what had happened? The police officer thought back to the conversation the dragon and Ash had. While she couldn't understand anything the Latios said, she heard Ash mention several times something about not killing Rico, which meant the Pokémon had the intent to murder the poacher.

Officer Jenny turned her gaze to the road ahead, her head running through multiple thoughts. The cause of Rico's death was all but obvious. It was either that the Larvitar's punch did more damage than she expected, or the psychic dragon had somehow done it, which left Jenny in a dilemma between morality and what she swore by as a law enforcer. Ash was a goodhearted and law-abiding child; she had seen that, _but_ one of his Pokémon was clearly capable and _willing_ to kill people. _'And… the law is clear as to what has to be done with trainers who possess Pokémon that are willing to murder…'_ Jenny thought as she closed her eyes for a moment. As much as it pained her, the law was clear and no one was above it or deserving of special considerations, not even a good kid like Ash. _'The law… is of equal application to anyone and everyone without bias…'_

"I'm sorry, Ash," Jenny said, as she began to turn her jeep around to drive back to the Pokémon center. "It really hurts me to do this, but if your Pokémon can kill whether by accident or intention, as a police officer, I have to do something about it." As much as it pained her, this was something she couldn't ignore.

…

Meanwhile, miles high in the sky, higher than the clouds above the vast green landscape of the Petalburg Woods and bordering the blue landscape of the ocean, was a surprising sight. A draconic being of titanic proportions was calmly floating in the air, completely silent and unmoving. Shiny black scales glistened brightly under the sunrays and piercing yellow irises calmly gazed to the earth below in a relaxed and contemplating manner. The stillness and silence of the scene seemed to go against the dragon's very intimidating size and frightening appearance. The Legendary Pokémon's powerful eyesight easily allowed the creature to see the forest below with perfect detail, down to the smallest thing. With astounding ease, the dragon kept track of a distinct group of humans and Pokémon it was intently observing. It was far too high and away for the young Latios and Latias to see or sense it, something the dragon was clearly aware of.

The dragon released a soft peaceful sigh. The way it was watching the Eon siblings seemed almost fond and caring, protective and kind, yet distant and reserved simultaneously. After many quiet minutes passed by, the dragon shook its large head once in distaste. "Frost," the black dragon spoke in a soft, airy and almost feminine voice that resonated with deep age and power. The dragon's gaze was still firmly locked and scanning the forest miles below.

The air all around seemed to still even further as the temperature dropped several dozen degrees swiftly. From seemingly out of nowhere, a gust of freezing, icy wind blew by, circling the dragon a couple times and causing the temperature to plummet even faster. The wind began to spiral tighter and tighter until it coalesced together a dozen feet in front of the massive dragon. As the frosty wind compressed a graceful figure could slowly be seen within the swirling blizzard.

The wind blasted outwards in a magnificent display of snowflakes and ice as the figure finished materializing before the dragon, levitating gently like a soft hazy wind. Floating in the air was a four foot tall Ghost Pokémon with a pure snow white body resembling a hollowed kimono dress coupled with a red band wrapped around her waist like a sash. She had a sideways-turned tear drop-shaped head with a pair of ice crystals growing from the top of it that resembled horns. The white face had two oval holes which revealed a pair of crystal-blue eyes with a yellow sclera and a diamond-shaped hole from which purple skin could be seen. The Pokémon had a pair of long, white, thin arms that sprouted from the sides of her head that dangled elegantly off her sides that flared at the waist with icy-blue markings on the tips that furthered the kimono look. The Pokémon, a gorgeous and elegant Froslass, bowed obediently with respect to the draconic being before her. "Yes, my Princess. You summoned me?" she whispered in a lean, cold, quiet voice that sounded like an icy breeze on a cold night.

Despite the freezing manifestation of the ghost, the dragon seemed completely unaffected by the cold temperatures, as if she didn't mind it at all. Not a single movement escaped the dragon throughout the icy display. "Yes," the large black dragoness answered in a regal and firm voice, her head turning to look at the Froslass, whose named was identified as Frost. "I did."

Frost nodded once dutifully. "What is it that you desire, my Princess?" she asked, gazing curiously at the legendary dragoness floating before her.

"My little Latios friend made a really bad mistake," she began, shaking her head once in disapproval. "He broke a human law, which might get him and his friends in trouble for killing another human, when he was right beside what appears to be some sort of human authority figure."

Frost frowned, having some trouble understanding the situation due to her lack of knowledge about human customs and laws as she rarely bothered or paid much attention to humans. "I don't quite get it, but they won't try to harm the young Prince and Princess for it, would they?" she began, trailing off and gazing at the black dragoness.

"I don't know. That's where I want you to step in, Frost," the large dragoness began, tilting her head slightly towards the Froslass. "I'm not psychic, and human minds are generally too weak and tiny for me to tamper with using my normal powers without accidentally and irreparably pulverizing them. I want you to possess the human authority figure, analyze her thoughts, and then edit them into something that puts no guilt or suspicion on my friend or his human." The gigantic, black-colored dragon turned her head to gaze down at the forest, her eyes easily pinpointing Officer Jenny as she drove her police jeep through the woods. "There she is."

Frost turned to look downwards at the forest, squinting as she tried to see it, but it was complicated due to the large distance involved. The dragoness' eyes flashed slightly with ghostly energy, aiding the smaller Ice/Ghost-type's sight. Frost nodded once she spotted Officer Jenny and her jeep with the extra aid. "Got it," she said, and then she let out a low hum. "What happened?" she asked, curiously, her voice still sounding polite and respectful.

The dragoness remained posed neutrally as her gaze shifted from the forest towards the ghost. Slowly, a faint glow of purple energy surrounded the jet-black dragoness, suddenly, her eyes flashed powerfully and instantly, the entire sequence of events that had happened between Ash, Latios, Latias and Rico had been imprinted in the Froslass' mind down to the smallest detail. "That happened," the dragoness answered straightforwardly with her voice calm and thoughtful. "I don't like the way the authority human reacted and I am not certain what her thoughts against the group may be. So I want you to make sure there is no blame pinned on them."

Frost nodded in confirmation. "I'll change her thoughts… maybe to thinking it was her who killed the human the Prince killed, so it counts as self-defense during the capture. I'll see what I can come up with." The Froslass bowed. "Anything else, my Princess?"

The black dragoness thought for a moment, and then nodded her large head. "Yes, Frost. Analyze the thoughts I imprinted in you and you'll see that during the battle, the human killed by our little Latios used a ghost that was in an extremely odd condition, and I am very concerned about him," she said, voice holding a pang of sadness hidden inside it.

The Froslass tilted her tear-shaped head slightly. "Odd… condition? Like what?" Frost asked as her mind checked the sequence of events. She too could see something was wrong with the ghost, but she couldn't figure out what

"Hurt, tortured, mangled, screaming…" the dragoness shook her head. "It was painful just to see it. He was badly beaten up in the battle, and should still be somewhere in the area, wandering about in confusion and pain due to the damage he sustained and his badly tortured mind. I want you to find him and bring him to me. He is a young Banette, as you can see. Something horrible must have been done to him, and I am… concerned."

"I wouldn't expect less from our beloved Princess of Ghosts," the Froslass said, her voice admiring and kind as she gazed at the dragoness. "Why don't you go get him yourself, though?" she asked.

"I don't want to get too close or extend such a noticeable spike of my powers in the area. Latios has been extremely eager and excited to finally meet his children. It's been a long time since I last paid a visit to the pair in Alto Mare. If they see or sense me, they'd ask questions and with them being free from the curse that tied them to Alto Mare, I could get in trouble if they ask too much or want to follow me around. I don't want to spoil any of the big surprises Latios has planned for the family reunion that is to take place soon. All in good time, Frost."

Frost nodded. "I understand, my Princess, I'll carry out your orders," the Froslass promised, voice filed with conviction and loyalty. She hummed. "Do I tell the Queen?" she asked.

"Mother doesn't need to know anything for now," the dragoness said simply. "I'll tell her what needs to be told later." With nothing else to say, the Snow Land Pokémon vanished in a haze of icy wind, rapidly descending towards the forest.

The dragoness released a soft sight as she watched her Froslass servant disappear in the forest, carrying out her assigned task immediately. She flared her levitation, rising a couple thousand feet higher into the sky in mere seconds. "Latios asked me to put a protection around his kids." She paused. "This will do." The dragoness's vivid, yellow-colored irises began to glow in a deep shade of violet-tinted spectral energy. Slowly, an eerie aura began to form around the dragoness, the yellow runic markings that lined her body pulsing with a vibrating force of spiritual energy. "With their underdeveloped senses and minds, they'd never detect this. Even so, I'll make sure to thin it as much as possible…" she commented to herself as the ghostly aura that had surrounded her exploded outwards. The energy spread all over the general area in an invisible and impossible-to-sense shield of dark ghostly energies, using the location of the Latias and Latios twins as reference to center the energy sphere that had in seconds coated the area.

The dragoness flew a few hundred feet higher, her supernatural sight easily allowing her to see her handiwork. The shield's mechanics were quite simple. The energy shield was to move along with the twins, always keeping them in the center of the protective sphere. Yet, it was so thin and its power so hidden that the twins would be unable to sense it at all, nor would any mortal Pokémon or human.

The black dragoness breathed a soft sigh of sadness, her thoughts drifting to the evil being that had initiated this entire painful ordeal…the twins' cursing and imprisonment in Alto Mare, and Latios' death and entrapment within the Soul Dew. She knew that now with the twins under her protection, the evil being would _never _touch them, the two little twins she adored so much.

"One day, we'll find you… and when we do, we'll make you regret everything you've done in the most horrible and painful of ways," she whispered, her promising voice filled with barely contained anger and rage. She gave a small quiet nod as she gazed at the two Eon Pokémon miles below her, completely unaware of her godly presence, her snout curled into a small loving smile. She did wonder if they needed a more constant watch and protection, seeing as she did need to help the young untrained Latios find that human he was so desperately looking for, and she also had needed to protect the group from the human's dangerous weapon when all else they tried had failed. She pondered the option for a few seconds, but then she shook her head, deciding that aside from this incident with the poacher known as Rico, they would be fine. Plus, her ghostly safeguard was protecting them from the _real_ danger they had no knowledge of. She turned, and with her work taken care of, rocketed out of the area, a powerful sonic boom erupting in her wake. She had many _other _things to help and do for Latios and his mate, the twin's mother, in preparation for the family reunion that was rapidly approaching…

…

"Hmm, this should do it…" Frost said with a small nod, her lean voice calm and collected as her spectral body left Officer Jenny and her Arcanine, releasing them from her possession. Both mortals were unconscious in the police jeep.

The powerful ghost had rewritten their memories as to what had happened during the last moments of Rico's apprehension. Now, both Jenny and Arcanine's memories would dictate that in reality, after Rico had been arrested, he had tried to escape and attacked Officer Jenny, and Arcanine had been forced to use lethal force on him to protect her. As such, Rico's death was to be written off as due to resisting arrest and at Arcanine's doing. As far as either of them was concerned, never had any of Ash's Pokémon done anything harmful to the foul green-haired human.

Frost glanced at the two mortals for a couple of instants, before her gaze drifted upwards, seeing the shield now covering the area. _'The Princess left already…' _Frost noted. The Froslass glanced at the surrounding forest, readying to start her second assigned task, recovering the injured wandering Banette. She turned around and with each of her long elegant arms, tapped Jenny and Arcanine's foreheads, making both of them begin to wake up from the trance she had put them into when she had possessed them. And before they could see the enigmatic ghost, she was gone in a quiet icy breeze…

* * *

><p><strong>Author Notes:<strong> Chapter finished! For those who are wondering, Rico's employer was most likely captured off-screen by the coast guard and police. XD

I hope everyone likes it! How was it?


	11. Fierce Friends and Feared Foes

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.**

"Speech"

_'Thoughts'_

_"Telepathy" _

**Author Notes:** Here it is… chapter 11!

I'm quite happy to have gotten this chapter done a lot faster than the last one. Be sure to enjoy it!

Also, remember the mysterious black dragoness from the ending of last chapter? Well, her full identity is revealed in this chapter! And let me assure you, she's _not_ what/who you'd expect!

**Chapter 11 – Fierce Friends and Feared Foes**

* * *

><p>Brock glanced anxiously at the clock hung on one of the walls of the Pokémon Center's reception area. The timepiece marked that midday was only a few minutes away, which meant that it had been almost two hours since Ash had departed along with Officer Jenny to hunt down Pokémon Hunter Rico. Although Brock had the utmost confidence that Ash and his Pokémon could defeat Rico and rescue Larvitar's mother, that didn't mean the older trainer didn't feel worried about his younger friend's wellbeing. "I hope they're okay…," he muttered worriedly, slumping against his seat as he observed the clock tick another anguishing minute away.<p>

Bianca glanced at him from where she was seated on the floor with her legs crossed. To pass the time, she was currently helping Smeargle draw some basic artwork with her paint-oozing tail. "I'm worried about them too," she admitted, but then she smiled optimistically. "But Ash is strong and his Pokémon are even stronger. Pikachu and Pidgeot are _amazing_, and together with Latias and Latios, I'm pretty sure they can defeat this poacher guy no matter what. I believe in them," she said positively.

Brock frowned but followed it up with a nod. "I _do_ trust Ash. I always do," he responded in answer to her optimistic claim. "But he _is_ chasing a rather dangerous bad guy. It's only natural that I worry for his welfare." He turned his attention towards Nurse Joy, who was sitting behind the counter nearby while dealing with some tedious paperwork. "How's James?" he inquired.

"He's fine and sleeping in one of the bedrooms at the moment. Aside from that cut on his chest and minor blood loss, there wasn't much wrong with him. I've already given him all the necessary treatments, so he'll make a full recovery," Nurse Joy informed him while briefly glancing at the older trainer. Brock nodded silently, acknowledging her answer. Nurse Joy then returned to her paperwork.

Jessie, in the meantime, was staring out the window with a yearning expression on her face while maintaining a state of complete silence. Every minute that went by was literal torture for her, but the only thing she could do was wait and hope that Ash, the trainer she had openly antagonized and had been so hostile towards for over two years, could save their beloved Pokémon from Rico and bring them back to her and James.

Brock sighed at the sad sight that was Jessie. _'Just looking at her makes me feel depressed,' _he thought sullenly, moving his gaze away from the female Team Rocket member and back to looking at Bianca. "Have you received any telepathic messages from Latios?" he asked her, hoping for a small update at the very least.

"No, I haven't," Bianca answered. "If I do, I'll be sure to tell you, Brock." The girl paused all of a sudden, her eyes widening slightly as a distinct and very familiar psychic presence lightly entered her mind, leaving a quick message in her thoughts before vanishing without a trace.

Brock chuckled upon noticing her distracted expression and pause. "What a coincidence. Let me guess, that was Latios or Latias?" he asked.

"Yeah, it was Latios," Bianca responded, shaking her head a couple of times to clear the lingering mental presence away. "He says they're all fine and are on their way here. They should arrive in a couple of minutes."

Brock smiled and nodded, the sense of worry and stress slowly drifting away from his mind and emotional state. "I hope they were able to rescue Larvitar's mother," he said, and then glanced at Jessie. "And rescue Team Rocket's Pokémon, too."

Bianca frowned sadly, hating to be the bearer of bad news. "They weren't able to save her, since the poacher didn't have her. They did save Team Rocket's Pokémon, though."

"That's… terrible," a distraught Brock whispered, gazing down sadly. "Poor Larvitar, he… he must be crushed." Bianca simply nodded in cheerless agreement.

Jessie, who had vaguely overheard their conversation while she was looking outside, could swear they had mentioned her Pokémon, so she turned away from the window and walked up to them. "The twerp… did it?" she asked, her voice glimmering with hope. "He saved our Pokémon?"

"Yeah, _Ash_ did it," Bianca answered with a rather spiteful and unkind tone, turning to look straight at Jessie. "He has a name, you know. Seeing as he went out of his way to rescue your Pokémon from an exceedingly dangerous criminal, and potentially risking his own life by doing so, I would think you could at least give him the courtesy of referring to him by his actual name," she added harshly.

Jessie, taken aback by the girl's angry reproach, stammered out, "I-I…" before closing her eyes and sighing. "S-sorry. So… _Ash_," the boy's name sounded rather unfamiliar on her tongue as she said it, "he was able to do it?" she asked.

Bianca huffed in annoyance and turned her head away from Jessie, looking straight ahead. "Like I said, yeah, he did. But he was unable to save the one _we_ were looking for," she added with a grumble, growling slightly in annoyance.

"That's awful," Jessie said gloomily. She was relieved her Pokémon were safe, but oddly, she found herself also feeling saddened by the fact that whatever Pokémon Ash was looking for had been unable to be rescued.

Bianca glared at her venomously. "And we lost her in the first place thanks to people like you!" she snapped resentfully.

Jessie cringed and turned away. "Sorry..." she whispered before backing away, feeling rather hurt at the artist's harsh stance towards her. The Team Rocket thief couldn't help but be surprised. Why did Bianca's words sting her emotions so badly? Every time the Alto Mare artist directed an insensitive comment towards her, she was pained by it. The fact that the comments were true, despite how unsympathetic they were, only made her feel even worse. She silently walked away to avoid further hurtful comments from Bianca, moving towards the infirmary so she could wake James up. She knew that her partner-in-crime would love to be there when their Pokémon were returned to them.

"That wasn't very nice, you know," Brock scolded Bianca disapprovingly.

The young artist scoffed. "So? As long as they are from Team Rocket I don't care about them at all. You know my opinion on this matter, Brock," she stated firmly, her sharp tone leaving little room for argument.

Brock nodded reluctantly, accepting her point of view. "Alright, I won't judge or press on it," he said in acknowledgement. "I'm just saying I'm not entirely okay with it."

"I hope you lecture them about the topic before handing them their Pokémon back, or else they'll immediately return to harassing us," Bianca said resolutely, her arms crossed over her chest. "We've only encountered them a couple times so far in Hoenn and I'm already tired of them. I don't even want to imagine what it was like dealing with them for a couple of years." She grimaced at the mere thought of it.

Brock sighed, his mind going over many of the times they encountered the troublesome trio over their journeys across Kanto and Johto. "A lot of patience, Bianca. A _lot_ of it," Brock said finally after many moments of slow not-so-nostalgic thoughts.

"I figured," the artist mumbled. Smeargle just blinked and stared at the two humans, rather confused about what they were talking about. She did figure it had to do with past experiences of the group she was now part of, but without anything useful to say, not that the humans would understand her words anyway, she went back to drawing for her new trainer. Bianca was a wonderful friend, and the Painter Pokémon wanted to make her proud with her natural art skills.

"They aren't entirely bad people, you know," Brock commented, and then hurriedly continued at the glare Bianca threw him. "I've dealt with them, like you said, for over two years. I think they're more imprudent misguided misfits than actual criminals. I've seen other Team Rocket members, like Annie and Oakley for example, and other_ real_ bad guys. Next to them, Jessie and James are nothing serious at all. They're more like a pestering annoyance. Sometimes, they have even tried to help us. I already have in mind what I'm going to lecture them on when we give them their Pokémon back. I hope I can get them to change their minds about it."

Bianca shook her head several times. "I judge by what I see, Brock, and until I see a change in them with my own eyes, I won't change my attitude towards them. If you get them to change their ways, then I might give them a chance."

"Fair enough," Brock said. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a shadow pass by one of the windows. "I think it's them," he spoke as he turned to look at the door. Bianca did the same, glancing towards the entry as the Pokémon Center's double glass doors parted open and a familiar blue dragon entered, followed by an equally familiar large cream and brown avian.

"Where's Latias?" Bianca asked instantly, noticing the absence of the female Legendary in the arriving group.

Latios bristled slightly at the mention of his sister. _"Rico managed to knock her out, by cheating,"_ Latios answered, rather irritated by this fact. _"She's resting in her Pokéball." _Bianca frowned worriedly for her best friend's health.

The group then heard a couple of screams. "Hey, stoooo-" Meowth cried out in horror, but it was too late. The Normal-type's plea was followed up with the sounds of a painful crash of flesh against glass before a few moans accompanied them. Nurse Joy winced.

Latios blushed in embarrassment as he glanced at his back, seeing Arbok, Weezing and Meowth slumped against the Pokémon Center's glass doors and painfully sliding down towards the pavement under the doorway. _"Oops, I should have stopped towing them. I forgot those kinds of doors close when you go through them…"_ he said telepathically, his mental tone embarrassed.

"Too bad for them those doors weren't automatic…Nurse Joy should really invest in some," Bianca said, glancing at the nurse briefly.

"I've been having budget problems lately…" the nurse grumbled.

Pikachu snorted, barely stifling a laugh. "Latios, you know that was totally on purpose," he stated. Latios glared at him silently.

Nurse Joy walked up to them, conveniently forgetting all about the doors. "Do any of your Pokémon need treatment? Also, where's Officer Jenny?" she asked as she examined Pidgeot, Latios and Pikachu. All three of them were marred with some minor injuries, but Latios seemed to be in the worse shape out of the trio.

"Officer Jenny is heading to Rustboro to put Rico in jail," Ash answered as he hopped off the eon dragon's back, a soundly asleep Larvitar cradled in his arms. Latios acted perfectly normal at the mention of the poacher he had killed without anyone realizing it. "And yeah, four of my Pokémon will need some treatment."

"Four? Why only four and not all six of them?" Bianca asked curiously as she walked towards him, eyeing each of his individual Pokémon. Latios' condition clearly worried her.

Latios briefly turned to glance at her. _"Larvitar and Phanpy didn't really fight,"_ the dragon answered mentally.

Phanpy pouted as he jumped off the dragon's back, landing on the ground quite neatly. "But we did something important! We helped all those poor Pokémon!" the infant exclaimed.

"_I never said you didn't help out, you did help a lot and it was great. I just said you didn't actually fight. You were great in what you had to do and I'm proud of that,"_ Latios explained, giving more depth to his answer as he looked down and smiled gently at the kid. Phanpy nodded in understanding and jumped around happily, elated that he had made his uncle proud.

Ash walked towards Nurse Joy and handed her a Pokéball, the one containing Latias, while being careful not to disturb the sleeping Larvitar cuddled to his chest. "Here, that's my Latias. She was knocked out with a dart of some sort," the Pokémon trainer informed her.

Nurse Joy nodded. "I'll make sure to analyze her blood and use the appropriate medication," she said as she took the spherical device. Pikachu jumped over to the counter as Latios and Pidgeot moved towards Nurse Joy, as they too were awaiting medical treatment.

"Please follow me. My Chansey and Blissey should have everything ready by now," Nurse Joy said in a slightly commanding voice as she turned around and began to walk towards a large double-door at the back of the reception which led to the medical bay. Pikachu, Latios and Pidgeot followed her. Soon, all of them had disappeared through the doorway.

Brock glanced over at the sleeping Larvitar. "No luck, then," he commented sadly, cringing when he noticed the faint trails of moisture on the Rock and Ground-type's cheeks, indicating he had cried a lot.

"Yeah, he was devastated. He cried himself to sleep on the way back. Right now he needs to rest this off," Ash said back as he looked at his surrogate son with a sullen expression. "We did our best to cheer him up, and it seemed to work. Latios said he and Latias will talk about their past to cheer him up."

"_Can you set him down? I need to cut down the psychic powers I'm using to help you keep him in your hands,"_ Latios asked telepathically. Ash nodded and walked to the chairs lining the wall of the reception and very gently set Larvitar down on one of them. The infant Rock-type shifted a couple times, but then fell completely still save for the delicate motion of his chest with every breath he took, remaining sound asleep.

"Poor little guy," Bianca commented, a saddened sigh escaping her. "I hope we can find his mother soon… Do you know who has her now?"

"No, all we know is that Team Magma has her. Who in all of Team Magma? We have no idea. It'll take a while to figure out," Ash answered as he sat down beside the seat in which Larvitar had been laid down on. Phanpy walked over and nudged Ash's leg. The young Pokémon trainer smiled down at his other surrogate son and picked him up, placing him on his lap. Phanpy squealed softly and nuzzled Ash's chest, prompting Ash to lovingly hug and pet him.

Brock hummed, thinking over the situation they had at hand regarding Team Magma and Larvitar's mother. "Our best option right now is to learn more about Team Magma, and then follow up with what Latios suggested. Seek help from other Legendary Pokémon. Hopefully, we can have them add finding Tyranitar to their objectives if they do agree to deal with Team Magma," Brock said hopefully. Bianca nodded once, agreeing that it was probably the best plan as the group didn't have the collective strength needed to fight a large organization like Team Magma. They needed all the help they could acquire.

"Where are our Pokémon?" Jessie asked as she walked out of the hallway leading to the bedrooms, a rather sleepy-looking James trailing behind her groggily. She wasn't in good shape either due to lack of recent sleep, but she was having an easier time dealing with it than the blue haired male.

"They stayed outside after Latios… uh, brought them back here," Brock answered awkwardly, pointing towards the double glass door and omitting the fact that Latios had smashed them into the door quite painfully.

"Okay, thanks!" Jessie exclaimed as she grabbed James' arm and pulled him rather hurriedly towards the door. Jessie pushed open the doors and stepped out along with James. She glanced around rapidly, scanning the clearing in which the Pokémon Center was situated. Her eyes instantly saw the Pokémon she was looking for as they were leaning on the walls beside the doors. Meowth was rubbing his head, while the other two were grimacing in pain from the impact with the glass entry nearby. "Arbok!" Jessie screeched loudly as her eyes watered. She lunged towards her beloved Pokémon.

"Weezing, brother!" James yelled, instantly forgetting completely about his chest injury and his exhaustion as he lunged at Weezing, wrapping his arms around the two-headed Pokémon's bigger head.

The two Pokémon's heads snapped up in an instant, clearly startled at the familiar sounds of their trainer's voices and the wonderful feeling of their hugs. Finally, all worry, depression, anxiety and stress abandoned the semi-villainous trainers as they were reunited at last with their beloved Pokémon. Jessie and James' eyes were moist with tears as they hugged their Pokémon tightly, glad the nightmare with Rico had finally been left behind them forever. Arbok and Weezing were no less emotional, nuzzling and pressing against Jessie and James with equal fervor and delight while repeatedly squealing their names. Weezing rubbed his body against James' chest and head and Arbok coiled his serpentine body around Jessie and pressed her tightly in a hug, being careful of his physical strength while doing so.

Meowth pouted at the fact that he was excluded from the emotional reunion. "Hey, what 'bout good 'ol Meowth!?" he yelled in exasperation, putting his paws on his hips in a scolding manner.

Both Jessie and James parted from their Pokémon, with more effort on Jessie's part, and looked at him. They smiled and opened their arms, Meowth immediately ran towards them and leaped into their arms, and both Jessie and James caught him and pressed him in a double hug. "We missed your yapping," Jessie said softly.

"As annoying as it is," James added fondly. Arbok and Weezing snickered quietly at the comments, while Meowth purred and rubbed his head against them.

The Team Rocket agents were so submerged in the emotions of their reunion that they failed to notice the Pokémon Center's doors open and close. "Well, I see you three are quite happy," Brock commented as he walked up to them. "Sorry to interrupt, by the way. But this is very important."

Jessie, James, Meowth, Arbok and Weezing stopped their actions and turned to glance at him. "Uh, yes, we are happy," James answered awkwardly, finding the interruption quite bizarre.

"Tell the twerp we said thanks a lot," Jessie added, feeling rather out of place, just like James did.

"His name is Ash, Jessie. Have you forgotten what Bianca told you no more than ten minutes ago?" Brock sternly corrected her, making her wince at the tone he used. Brock crossed his arms over his chest, glancing at each human and Pokémon in front of him for a few fixed instants before moving on the next. "I hope this has taught a _very_ valuable lesson to you three. Do you now understand why stealing Pokémon is a very bad thing that shouldn't be taken lightly?" he asked sharply, his tone implying he wasn't kidding around at all.

"Uh…" Jessie hesitated, looking down in shame and guilt as nothing coherent to answer with came to her mind. Even if she was happy to have her Pokémon back, all the emotions she had felt since Rico had attacked them and up to the current moment were still very present and fresh in her mind.

"Yes?" James answered uncertainly, uncomfortably gazing at Jessie and Meowth for support. They shrugged at him without a word, signaling to him that they were at the same loss of words as he was. Like Jessie, he too had all the feelings of hurt very fresh in his mind.

"Trainers can have wonderful and very deep bonds with their Pokémon, like the one you two have with Arbok and Weezing, for example. And you two felt firsthand what happens when that bond is broken by something as wicked as thievery. Every time you two try to steal someone's Pokémon, you are fully _willing _to make them go through exactly what you guys just went through… all that pain, suffering, stress, depression, hopelessness and countless other terrible feelings. Do you feel comfortable knowing that that's what you three are fully willing to do to others?" Brock asked them, his voice neutral and calm as he conversed with the thieves and their Pokémon. "Are you three perfectly okay and glad to live knowing that you center your life on inflicting this kind of pain on others?"

"It's just that… uh… we… I…" Jessie stammered incoherently, unable to answer the breeder in the making's lecture with a straight face.

"We… don't?" James answered uneasily. His eyes widened slightly as he realized what he said. "We… don't… like it… not at all…"

"You've been trying to do this to Ash ever since that day you met him over two years ago, and his bond with Pikachu is just as strong, if not stronger, than the one you two have with Arbok, Weezing and Meowth. If you two succeed in stealing Pikachu, this is how Ash would feel. Every single pain you suffered is what Ash, an innocent and naïve twelve-year-old boy, would have to experience. You two truly suffered from what Rico did to you. Do you really want to live knowing this is the true nature of your so-called work?" Brock asked sharply, his voice transforming from calm to firmer and harsher.

"No…" James responded sadly, now feeling like reeling back in disgust at the idea of robbing others' Pokémon. After what Ash had gone through to save his precious and beloved Weezing, now he felt that he just couldn't try to rob him ever again.

"…" Jessie remained completely silent, as did Meowth, Arbok and Weezing.

"Now you finally understand the true nature and moral damage behind what you do for a living," Brock added to his lecture. "And really, be honest with me. Do you three really think you'll be able to succeed?" he asked the trio.

"Huh?" Jessie asked, confused. James and Meowth stared at the trainer, equally baffled.

"Well, think about it. You've been trying to rob us for two straight years with no success. We've foiled every plan you've made and smashed every single robot you've brought our way. You three are only wasting your life and your time trying to rob us, and also, take note… if you can't beat us _now_, how will you beat us in the future? Bianca has recently become a trainer, and soon she'll capture more Pokémon. I only have one Pokémon with me at the moment, and I can guarantee you that I will get new friends as we travel through Hoenn. Ash will most likely also get many new Pokémon in his travels, given how friendly and eager he is about new Pokémon. And most importantly, Latias and Latios are only getting stronger each passing day. We, as a group, are _all_ getting strongereach and every day," Brock explained calmly, his words clearly holding truth in them. "You three will _never_ defeat us. At the rate you three are going, you're only doomed to be like, seven hundred thousand five hundred and thirty-third best to us."

"Don't you mean second best?" Meowth asked.

"No," Brock said flatly. Team Rocket winced.

James sighed in dismay, but he had no way to prove Brock wrong. "True…," he admitted grudgingly, but the thought did linger in his mind. _'Is there truly no way for us to defeat the twerp and his group?'_

"That means your Pokémon robbing career is reduced to something quite simple. You are trying to do something impossible every day, which is defeat us, that has results you two now _hate_, which is the pain you inflict upon others by doing so. Is that how you want to live your lives?" Brock questioned them. "You three have a lot of potential to be good and friendly guys. I don't believe you are evil or irredeemable. I've always believed you three can be good with the correct path laid down before you. You can definitely do something better than this," Brock said gently.

"…" Jessie, James and Meowth remained completely silent, their gazes held low and looking towards the dirt, unable to look Brock in the eye as they reflected each and every one of the former Gym Leader's wise words.

"If you three, after this entire ordeal with Rico, _still_ go back to Pokémon robbing as if nothing ever happened, then in my mind, you will be the most hypocritical and hopelessly ungrateful scumbags I have ever seen," Brock finished, his eyes narrowing (even more!) as he looked down at them. "You three learned today that stealing Pokémon isn't what you three really want to do. With that in mind, I want you all to think, really _think_, about what you three really want out of your lives, and I really, sincerely hope that whatever that may be, that it'll allow you to amount to more than what you are now." Brock ended his lecture and turned around and walked back into the Pokémon Center, leaving a quiet Team Rocket trio silently thinking over each and every one of his words.

Brock walked back inside the Pokémon Center and sat down beside Ash and Bianca. "I'm done with them," he informed them.

"Do you think it'll work?" Bianca asked curiously, glancing at him.

"It's entirely up to them," Brock answered her. "I just hope that I said the right things and brought up the right points with them." Sadly, he knew that he couldn't impose something on them, and that ultimately they were the ones to decide what to do with their lives.

"Oh well," Bianca replied disapprovingly. She turned when Smeargle nudged her leg and showed her a drawing she had made. Bianca smiled and leaned down to review her new Pokémon's basic drawing that she had just made.

"I hope they stop being bad guys," Ash wished with optimism. "That would be great. I'm willing to give them a chance." One of Ash's hands was petting the sleeping Larvitar's head gently while the other was caressing Phanpy's back. The infant was still comfortably seated on his lap. "It'd be great for both us and them."

"Yeah, it will be, Ash," Brock answered, and then changed the topic as he felt there was nothing more to discuss regarding Team Rocket. "So, will we depart after Nurse Joy's done healing your Pokémon?" the former Pewter Gym Leader asked the young trainer curiously. "It's still early midday, so there's a lot of time left in the day to get some traveling in to Rustboro."

Ash frowned as he thought hard for a few instants about the matter. "Nah, we'll stay here until tomorrow. My Pokémon have been in a lot of really tough battles in the last few days. Team Magma, Team Rocket's robot Slaking, Norman, and now Rico… I think they deserve a day off to recover and rest up. Have some fun too," the young Pallet Town trainer answered, displaying a small smile as he did so. "Rustboro City can wait for now."

"Wow Ash, your maturity surprises me," Brock said, chuckling slightly. "The Ash I knew from Kanto would hurry everyone up for the sake of running to the next Gym battle," he said jokingly, a small fatherly smile present on his lips.

Ash shook his head softly, holding back a small chuckle at the words and tone Brock used with him. "My Pokémon deserve a day off."

"Very well," Brock spoke back, easily agreeing with Ash's decision and approving of it. "Let's wait until Nurse Joy is finished, then." Ash nodded and resumed paying attention to his two children while Bianca continued her art session with Smeargle.

The rest of the day was quite normal for the group. After Nurse Joy had finished treating Ash's injured and exhausted Pokémon, Team Rocket had dropped by so Arbok, Meowth, and Weezing could receive some medical treatment as well from the injuries they had sustained from the entire ordeal with Rico. After their own treatments were taken care of, they had a satisfying meal and then departed from the Pokémon Center, declaring that they wanted to think about their future alone and away from the group. Ash and Brock didn't impede their departure and let them leave.

Ash's Pokémon greatly enjoyed their trainer's decision to let them rest for the day. Pidgeot, Latios and Pikachu decided to go out into the nearby woods to rest in the wonderful scenery and peace of nature. Meanwhile, Ash stayed in the Pokémon Center with Brock, Smeargle, Bianca, Phanpy and Larvitar. Sadly, Nurse Joy said it'd take Latias several hours to wake up due to the specific cocktail of drugs Rico had used against her.

All the time they rested in the woods, Latios' mind was thinking on what stories to tell the group and specifically, Larvitar, assuming that Latias agreed to tell them, of course. The entire group seemed very eager to hear about their past, and he couldn't really blame them due to how zealously they defended their history sometimes. To the Eon dragon's surprise, he found himself slightly missing some of the Legendaries that so dedicatedly made his childhood actually bearable and enjoyable. This left him with a small glint of hope that he would meet up with them again soon. Latios decided that the perfect time to tell the stories would be during the hours of darkness. When everyone would get ready for bed, said tales would act as a sort of bedtime stories. And by then, Latias would definitely be awake.

The afternoon went by quickly for the group, and it wasn't long before the sun slowly slipped down to the horizon and night settled in …

* * *

><p>Elsewhere…<p>

Flying towards the Johto region at a speed several times faster than that of sound was a titanic black dragoness. Her elegant and graceful gigantic body fluidly swam across the night sky with practiced ease. The natural darkness of the night made the dragoness appear almost invisible due to her black scales blending into the pitch-dark sky. The long distance between Hoenn and Johto was of little inconvenience to the dragoness, her massive speed easily making it a relatively short journey for her.

Her powerful eyesight easily took in the scenery below her with perfect detail despite the sheer speed of her flight. Her eyes instantly caught sight of the blue dragon she had been flying in the direction of. A massive wave of air boomed all around in her wake as she came to an almost abrupt halt instantly. Despite the massive amount of kinetic energies involved in such an action, the draconic entity seemed completely unaffected by it.

At a much more sedate pace, the dragoness began flying downwards to the grassy plains that expanded below her, the black dragoness' eyes focused on the other dragon she was levitating towards. "Hello," she greeted gently, her voice airy and soft.

The father Latios turned to look at her. He didn't seem surprised at all by her sudden appearance, it was clear he had sensed her a long way back. "Hello to you too," he responded in greeting, giving a small curt nod of respect. "Did you put a protection around my children like I requested you to?" he asked, quickly jumping to the most important topic in his mind.

The dragoness released a small breath of amusement at how quickly the Eon Pokémon jumped to the topic, but she could understand why he did it. "Yes, I did," she answered. "I put a thin ghost shield around the twins. Using them as the epicenter, the shield will move along with them no matter where they go. They'll be completely safe under my watch," she informed him as she approached the elder Latios steadily, stopping several dozen feet in front of him. Her huge towering form loomed over the comparatively much,_ much_ smaller Latios rather ominously, despite the fact that the friendly meeting indicated that they got along quite well. The pale glow of the moonlight above them created a dim illumination that glistened softly on the Latios' reflective feather down and the dragoness' shiny black scales.

Latios smiled gratefully. "Thank you," he said appreciatively as he glanced up at her face. The dragoness nodded once, making the moonlight glitter softly across her face and neck as she did so.

The dragoness slowly lowered herself a bit more so she didn't tower over the blue dragon too exaggeratedly, letting her long tail coil a couple of times in the soft grass. The being looming above the Latios was a fearsome yet elegant and graceful draconic Pokémon. She was a very large serpentine dragon easily over a hundred feet long with shiny, deep black scales covering the entirety of her lustrous body. Two red-tipped, rudder-like fins sprouted from her 'shoulders' and two other segments of her long body, with her tail ending in two red-tipped triangular fins. Lining the sides of the dragoness' sleek body were radiant golden ring-like rune markings starting with a large golden circle on her forehead. The dragoness had two arms that ended in three-clawed hands and two large upward pointing horn-like structures jutting out from the back of her head, with two smaller ones sprouting from the underside. Two soft ridges lined the upper side of her head above her eyes, which were two prominently visible bright golden irises placed against a pitch-black sclera. Her slightly opened mouth revealed a long row of vicious, red-colored teeth with two white fangs on the underside of her upper snout. The female black Rayquaza's features seemed to radiate a youthful and feminine aura. "You're welcome, Latios," the shiny Rayquaza spoke gently.

"What brings you here? I thought that after setting up the protection around my children this morning, you'd remain at Sky Pillar afterwards, Skailyn," Latios wondered, tilting his head slightly in curiosity.

The black Rayquaza, whose name was now identified as Skailyn, gave a single nod. "I thought I would too, but a little something came up," she answered as she began to think about the events she had seen with the twins, Ash and Rico. "You can pick up my thoughts to know the whole story."

Latios' eyes radiated a soft glow, not intruding or seeing into the shiny Rayquaza's mind, but instead just picking up the thoughts she was giving off. Within a fraction of a second, he had a complete picture of what had happened, which caused him to frown at the ending. "It's good you had Frost fix that. Otherwise, my son could have gotten him and Ash in serious trouble for that. Trust me, I know human laws."

"I know you do, but that's not the topic I'm referring to. It's that poacher's Pokémon. As you saw, he had a Banette among his Pokémon. A poor injured soul that Frost brought to me earlier this day after she recovered him from wandering around aimlessly in the woods. What I saw in the poor soul was… horrible, to put it bluntly." She shook her head a few times in disgust. "He was what some circles of criminal humans call Slave Pokémon, and what they do to create them is outrageous. I understand Pokémon can do anything they choose with their lives, from what is deemed to be either good or evil in the path of life they take. But these Pokémon don't even get that choice in this circumstance. From hatchlings, they are raised as nothing but slaves and monsters destined to be unwaveringly obedient to their masters until their very deaths," Skailyn explained, her voice shaking from the growls that were arising from deep within her throat. "And they have many ghosts and dragons in their possession, some of them still young, in these horrible conditions because being powerful types, they are quite popular to use. As the princess of both the Ghost and Dragon kingdoms, I feel it's my duty to help them."

Latios frowned. "You know we don't try to get involved into human affairs too often, Skailyn. We usually just let humans be and solve their own problems unless they openly intrude into _our_ affairs. Bad things happen everywhere and it's usually not up to us to pass judgment on each and every one of them, even if we are gods," he said wisely, his eyes eyeing the dragoness carefully and seeing her reactions. "We let life follow its natural trail and only exert our will on it when necessary."

Skailyn nodded once to his miniature lecture. "I know that, Latios. But... these Pokémon, they don't deserve anything of what's happening to them. They're being tortured until they break when they're nothing more than hatchlings. No one deserves that. They need help, and those humans, they're not going to stop. There's just going to continue and continue. And who's to say that, if we don't step in now, these tortures won't become more and more common? I want to do this because no one deserves this fate," she explained, her voice firm. "Plus, being the daughter of the Dragon King and Ghost Queen, arguably it _is_ my affair to help these ghosts and dragons, and in the process help every other Pokémon trapped in this nightmare."

Latios stared at her silently, his eyes judging. "Well? You bring this up to me instead of Rayquaza because…" he left the sentence hanging, waiting for her to explain her motives.

"I can't do it alone. I'd ask my father, but he's not in Sky Pillar at the moment. Plus he'd have the same problem as me anyways. Most of these horrors happen in well-populated areas, namely human cities. I can't get in and out of there on my own. Not with my massive size, especially if I'm bringing hurt Pokémon out as well. I can't stop these humans and help these Pokémon without some human seeing me even under the cover of night. Some humans who may see me might think the wrong thing about my actions. That's why I need your illusion and psychic powers, Latios. To cover me while I deal with these… vile enslavers," the black Rayquaza explained. "Plus, you're the one that has skill and experience when it comes to dealing with humans and their inventions and excessively populous settlements."

Latios hummed softly, quietly thinking about the Legendary Princess' words. "I see, that's a noble way to think," the Eon Pokémon commented. "You sound a lot like your parents when talking like that. Giratina and Rayquaza would approve of it."

"I know they would," Skailyn said confidently, thankful that she had convinced the Latios to aid her. "So," she continued, clapping her claws together expectantly. "Let's go now, Latios. I have a lot of humans to deal with and you a lot of hiding to do," she urged him impatiently.

Latios chuckled in amusement, deciding to play a bit with her. "You're sounding a bit bossy there, Skailyn. You're only a teenager, even if you're close to adulthood you should know to respect your elders, not order them around to do your bidding. I know your parents raised you better than that," he said, a teasing smile on his lips while his eyes reflected a mirthful look. "I couldn't have been gone_ that_ long."

Skailyn scoffed in glee and shook her head a couple times, an equally mirthful expression on her face. "Oh, bite my tail scales, Latios."

Latios made a fake frown. "Didn't you hear a word I said?" he asked playfully.

Skailyn let out a throaty chuckle and leaned down, lightly bumping her head onto the older Legendary's wing and side. "Look who talks about bossy now. You sounded worse than my _father _does when you ordered me to place something around your children to protect them."

"Okay, okay, you're right with that point," Latios conceded, nuzzling the black Rayquaza's cheek with his neck. "But, as an adult and very good friend of your parents, I do have some rights to order you around and as a teenager you have the obligation to obey me."

Skailyn rolled her eyes slightly, having no way to snap back at that. "Fine, you win this time. I'm asking you to do me a nice favor as your lovely friend."

Latios smiled warmly. "That's better," he said humorously.

Skailyn hummed softly, pressing into the older Latios' side. "I missed you," she whispered gently and sweetly. "The last century without you around felt like a rather long one," the Sky High Pokémon added, giving the Eon Pokémon's side and wing a tender and affectionate lick with her tongue.

"I missed you too, sweetheart," Latios replied kindly, his voice fond and nostalgic. "I missed everyone in general. It's good to be back and out of the Soul Dew."

"I imagine it is," Skailyn responded as she pulled back slowly, rising and towering over the smaller Latios once more. "Shall we be on our way then?" she asked, her voice a lot more serious as she dropped the playful act.

Latios nodded. "Sure, I'm done here anyways. I can spare a quick travel to Hoenn," he answered. "Plus, with how angry I see you are, I'm pretty sure you won't take long to deal with these human enslavers," he added, eyes narrowing slightly as he added a serious undertone to his voice, not doubting the female shiny Rayquaza's capacity. The Latios began to slowly rise into the sky, gradually reaching the dragoness' height. As she watched him ascend, the shiny Rayquaza followed his altitude. Suddenly, both Legendaries disappeared into the night, generating a massive, deafening sonic boom blowing harshly in their wake, the grassy plains below them flattened as the wind was upset from its nightly peace by the departure of the two dragons rapidly moving towards Hoenn…

…

Meanwhile…

'_I wonder what all these machines are capable of…_' a certain evil spirit speculated gleefully while gazing from several thousand feet in the sky at the Team Aqua fleet amassed below him. His contemplating gaze stayed several long moments on each of the vessels before moving on to the next one.

He had learned everything there was to learn about Team Magma when he spied on them and read the souls and minds of their operatives, and after learning of Team Aqua through Team Magma, he had spent the last few hours secretly spying and learning everything there was about them as well. _'I still don't like their respective goals. I did not create the Red, Blue and Jade orbs for stupid things like expanding oceans or land. I created them to wage war against Legendaries! But I can still use these teams to fight the Legendaries. I'll come up with something,'_ he thought to himself darkly, his astral mind racing with hundreds of thoughts and ideas of how he could use Team Aqua and Team Magma to his benefit.

'_But I do wonder why humans changed so much overtime… We humans were very different in the past, we were as Pokémon, powerful ones at that… Why do humans now consider themselves a separate species from Pokémon? Humanity has become very bizarre since my day… they are weak and powerless… No attacks, no special abilities, no control of aura, no magic… nothing,'_ the spirit thought as he teleported down, reappearing near one of Team Aqua's warships. _'But now they have these things… machines… _war_ machines… I wonder how efficient they truly are…'_ In his mind, he weighed the pros and cons of the ancient humans compared to machines, evaluating them while wondering which would be more efficient and useful. Of course, he knew a lot about the mechanical contraptions from all the minds he'd been reading in Team Aqua and Team Magma, but it wasn't the same as actually _seeing_ them in action himself rather than knowing what they could do from mind reading.

The malevolent specter looked down when he noticed some unusual activity in the fleet amassed in the quiet night. What seemed to be a sort of hovercraft had exited the main Team Aqua submarine ship, quickly speeding towards another one of the behemoth-sized warships, which had the inscription _Sea Titan _on its side. The spirit's soul sight easily allowed him to see through the metal and precisely identify its occupants, some of which he recognized as the administrators of Team Aqua. A large segment on the side of the _Sea Titan_ began to slide open, revealing a large landing dock with several dozen smaller aircraft already in it. The hovercraft landed on it, carefully entering an unoccupied space in the landing dock. Once the small transport vehicle was in, the steel barrier slid back into place.

To the spirit's surprise, the colossal metal aircraft began to lose altitude until it crashed into the sea, causing a large wave to surge out in all directions. The harsh landing of the Sea Titan barely disturbed the rest of the airships, submarines and ships. The roar of powerful engines echoed as the ship began to move forward, submerging until it was completely beneath the waves. _'Interesting,'_ the spirit commented to himself in interest, and had he had eyebrows he certainly would have raised one. _'I wonder how that thing would fare in a battle against Lugia, Kyogre or maybe Kyurem,'_ the spirit speculated, his mind racing and trying to picture the battle in his wicked imagination. But without seeing the airships in action himself, it was hard to make accurate assumptions. _'Well, I guess I'm done spying on Team Aqua for the moment.'_

The spirit paused for several moments, thinking what his next destination was. _'I'll go and see what the progress of Latios' brats and that extremely interesting human boy is.'_

The spirit's astral energy let out a small vibrating hum of dark power as he prepared a long-ranged teleport towards the general area he had spotted the children in last time. However, instants before it teleported the spirit suddenly froze and stopped, quickly cancelling the teleport in an almost frantic way._ 'That stupid she-dragon! Damned Skailyn!'_ The spirit cursed angrily, his dark aura flaring angrily. Out of anger, the spirit picked a nearby teleportation destination and vanished in a small flicker of power.

With a glimmer of energy, the spirit materialized in a new location, which was near to his original picked destination before cancelling the teleport. _"Oh… great…"_ he said sarcastically as gazed at the sight before him.

Before the spirit was a massive dome of purplish-black energy that completely concealed everything inside it from his eyes and also made him feel quite uncomfortable just from being in close proximity to it. It was obvious he wouldn't be able to cross it at all. _'Latios didn't lose time, it seems,'_ the spirit thought sourly. _'When I saw the twins and their group back in my old chamber, there wasn't a shield. Now there is one. It means Latios still has me very present in his mind. And most importantly, it won't be long until the twins are reunited with him and will be put even further from my reach. It'll be much harder to do anything to them.'_

The spirit gazed at the shield for several moments, and then released a vibe of anger and frustration. _'I should have tried doing something when I had them that night near my chamber! I should have expected this!' _the spirit thought angrily. After ranting mentally for several moments, he paused, collecting himself and calming down as he knew a tantrum wouldn't get him anywhere. He allowed more cold and calculating thoughts to enter his mind, pondering how to adapt to this new situation. His mind processed the things that had drawn his interest that night back in Oldale Town. The young Latias and Latios, and one of the humans he had seen with them. _'That human… Ash, if I'm correct with his name. It's been a long time since I saw an Aura as powerful and concentrated in a mortal soul as the one he had… his Aura, with proper training could be even stronger than mine when I was in my prime. I need it! Along with the twins… having a taste of their power, along with my already existing research and tricks, might give me the edge I need over the Legendaries.'_

'_If Latios is having Giratina and Rayquaza's daughter, Skailyn, protect them, I'll need some of my old toys with me, just in case,' _the spirit thought darkly, and with a flick of his powers, he teleported away yet again. The spirit reappeared in what seemed to be a hidden chamber of sorts, completely sealed by walls of rock on all sides. The entirety of the chamber was marked with magical runes running through the stone. In the center of the room were three perfectly aligned pillars of marble. Each of the pillars had a ring of a distinct color circling around them. On the left was a red color, on the right was a dark blue tone, and the final one in the center was green-colored.

The spirit let out a deep, contemplating hum, gleefully eyeing the pillars in which his beloved creations, the Red, Blue, and Jade Orbs, rested. The spirit glided forward and let his powers brush the center pillar, the one with a green circle.

There was a loud buzz of vibrating energy as the green circle began to glow brightly, pulsing with power as the sealing spell keeping it in place was unlocked. Akin to a spider web, dozens of lines consisting of tiny runes in an ancient language began to spread all over the pillar, slowly cracking the marble until it began to fall apart, revealing that a spherical orb was hidden in the pillar.

The perfectly spherical artifact possessed a lively emerald color with a crystalline texture along with faint traces of energy flowing inside it. _'The Jade Orb…,' _the spirit thought gleefully. _'One of my ultimate masterpieces, without a doubt…'_ The ethereal being reached forward and slowly took the floating orb in his ghostly hold. _'It may not have the same effect of complete control and dominance on Skailyn as it does on Rayquaza, but it will still hurt her badly,' _the spirit thought, enchanted at the prospect. _'This will keep that pesky brat off me, in case she manages to somehow track me.'_

The spirit glanced at the red and blue marble pillars, which contained the Red and Blue Orbs. Just like the Jade Orb had the ability to completely control and manipulate Rayquaza, the Red and Blue Orbs had the ability to seize control of Kyogre and Groudon, respectively. Comically, the spirit had no clue why he inverted their colors when he created them. It seemed like a good idea at the time. _'I'll leave the Red and Blue Orbs here for those Team Aqua and Team Magma groups to track. Let's see if they're worthy of my creations,'_ the evil spirit thought as he gazed between both of the pillars_. 'And to think, these aren't my only weapons. For waging war against those damned legendaries, I have many more artifacts like these, and if the legends get more active against me, I might need…more of them…' _The spirit let out a dark laugh which resonated deeply within the chamber, and then teleported away, completely disappearing along with the Jade Orb…

...

Meanwhile, in Team Rocket's headquarters in the mountains of Kanto…

Annie and Oakley coolly walked down the long metallic hallways leading to the research labs of the facility, where they had been summoned by their supervisor, Professor Sebastian. "I wonder what Pointy Beard wants now," Annie murmured wonderingly.

"Whatever it is, I hope it involves us going to kick a Legendary's ass. I'm sick of waiting in here! I want field action!" Oakley snapped, clearly irritated after days of pure boredom. "If Sebastian doesn't have any action for us, I'm kicking his egghead butt up and down the length of this base, and then all the way to Master Giovanni's office along with a complaint."

Annie giggled at her sister's remarks. "I'd be amused to see that," she commented. "I kinda want to leave the headquarters too. It's so boring and not-stylish in here. There's too much dull grey and metal and fashion disaster uniforms in here. Plus, I'm in the mood to get some new diamonds and clothes…"

Oakley sighed at her sibling. "Don't you care about something that isn't fashion, clothes and silly jewels?" she asked, exasperated.

"Uh, nope," Annie answered, taking out a pocket mirror and checking it to see if her oversized ponytails were still perfect. Oakley shook her head in frustration. Both agents arrived at the massive entrance to the labs. Oakley took out her identification keycard and slid it across the keypad besides the massive metal entry. There were a couple of beeps and flashing lights, and then the doors started sliding open as the access was granted.

Annie and Oakley made their way inside the lab, a massive room easily a couple hundred feet long with a roof at least several dozen feet tall. Massive pieces of machinery and equipment that were way too complicated for Annie and Oakley's understanding lined the room as far as they could see. Over fifty scientists, all dressed in the same white lab coats with a red 'R' emblazoned on them, could be seen everywhere operating the machines and computers. Many Pokémon could also be seen aiding the scientists, mostly Psychic-type Pokémon. "So, where's Pointy Beard?" Annie asked the closest scientist, a woman who was holding several stacks of papers.

"Who?" The scientist asked, completely confused.

"Professor Sebastian," Oakley corrected her sister.

"He should be near the testing area on the south end of the lab. Just look for a big glass tank filled with black energy, it's impossible to miss," the scientist answered while pointing in the general direction of where she was telling them to go before resuming her duties.

Annie and Oakley nodded and walked towards where the scientist woman had pointed, their eyes idly scanning the work of the numerous scientists and their psychic-type assistants. Soon enough, they saw a large glass tank filled with a dark, vile-looking energy that was connected to several dozen computers, large display screens and machines. "You summoned us, Professor Sebastian?" Oakley asked politely, stepping up to the professor.

Sebastian, a tall man with bowl-cut grayish hair and a pointy goatee, focused his attention on the two elite operatives. "Yes, I did," he answered curtly. "It's time for you two to move out. I dispatched Attila and Hun to a mission yesterday. It's now your turn to leave," he continued.

"Great!" Oakley exclaimed eagerly, unable to contain her excitement on the matter. "It's about damn time."

Annie, in the meantime, walked closer to the dark energy tank in pure curiosity, examining it closer. "What's this?" she asked inquisitively. "It gives me the creeps."

"That's pure, condensed dark energy. At its current state, it's stronger than any Dark-type Pokémon you can think of. That is one of the many components that make up the Prison Ball," Sebastian answered. "Giovanni was able to obtain more funds from…dubious sources and more scarce materials, and tasked me and Namza to see the possibility of either making more Prison Balls or making the existing ones stronger. It depends on what's more efficient." As usual, everyone was completely oblivious to the pronunciation error they made on Doctor Namba's name.

Off in an adjacent area of the base's labs, Doctor Namba sneezed. "Ugh, why do I have the feeling I should be yelling at someone for messing up my name just now?" the balding scientist muttered in annoyance, sniffling and rubbing his nose.

"Wow, you think you can make _more_ of them?" Oakley said, eyes gleaming at the prospect.

"It's very complicated. The Prison Ball contains many components that are extremely scarce or very hard to obtain, like the energy Annie's looking at. Thinning out dark energy to such a pure state is very hard. It also has some components that are already extremely limited to begin with. That is why they can be extremely expensive and why our starting batch was only five Prison Balls. I'm debating with Giovanni over what's better, to improve the existing ones or to make more," Sebastian explained patiently. "I think that we, at the moment, severely lack many of the Prison Ball's critical components to make more. So improving the ones we have now is the best path to take, in my opinion. Hopefully that can change."

"Too bad," Oakley muttered, saddened. But she still didn't let the matter affect her too much. "So what's our assignment?" she asked, changing the topic to the more important one at hand.

"I want you two to obtain more intelligence about the Legendaries. Our archeology teams brought to me a very interesting story earlier today," Sebastian started. "Are you two familiar with the Kingdom of Pokélantis?" the scientist asked, glancing between both Team Rocket women.

"Uh, not that I know of," Oakley answered after several moments of thought. "And if I don't know, then Annie doesn't either."

"Hey!" Annie yelled at her, angered. Oakley and Sebastian completely ignored her.

"We don't exactly know much either," Sebastian admitted. "But rumors say that Pokélantis was once a very powerful civilization during the ancient times. The world's best archeologists place its existence between three thousand to ten thousand years ago. It is said to have been the strongest ancient civilization in the world. For some mysterious reason, it was destroyed in a very short time. It's been suggested due to the archeological evidence found in numerous ruins that a possible war between Legendary Pokémon and the kingdom of Pokélantis was what ultimately caused their demise." Sebastian turned to one of the scientists operating a computer. "Put the tablet image on the main screen," he ordered. The scientist complied immediately, and within instants a large screen on one of the walls showed the image of what appeared to be an ancient porcelain tablet.

"Wow…" Oakley commented, eyeing the image on the massive screen with awe. "Fascinating."

"Indeed," Sebastian agreed. The image of the tablet on the screen depicted what seemed to be a massive ancient city, on the tallest tower of which was a human figure carrying a staff, facing off against an avian-like Legendary Pokémon spewing massive torrents of apocalyptic flames. "That's apparently the Legendary Pokémon of the skies, Ho-Oh."

"And one of our apparent targets," Oakley added, nodding once.

"Yes. It seems that there's a story surrounding this civilization, that during its war against Legendaries, the leader, known as the King of Pokélantis, managed to trick Ho-Oh and sealed it into a stone sphere, trapping it forever inside the ruins of one of their cities," Sebastian explained. "I want you two to head out towards the known ruins of the kingdom of Pokélantis and investigate them to see if you can find their famous 'sealed Ho-Oh' somewhere. If not, we might at least find inklings that lead us to the real Ho-Oh's location," the scientist elaborated. The image of the tablet faded and a map of the Kanto and Johto regions appeared, on which at least a dozen red flashing dots could be seen.

"Let me guess, those dots are where the known locations of said ruins are?" Oakley guessed, putting her right index finger on her chin.

Sebastian nodded. "Yes, so far, twelve city-ruins of Pokélantis have been discovered. It is claimed that there are more, but these are the only ones we have knowledge of. The sealed Ho-Oh might be contained in one of them. Investigate and report your findings to me at once. Also, take your Prison Ball in case Ho-Oh is actually there. If Ho-Oh isn't there, we might at least find clues regarding the fable of this civilization's war with Legendaries and hopefully, a definite answer. They had to know _something_ about them."

"Understood!" Oakley said energetically, feeling eager to finally be deployed on a field mission. She was more of an action girl than an office girl.

"A helicopter is waiting for you in the hangars. Better hurry up," Sebastian informed them.

"A helicopter? That's so not a stylish way to travel around. I want a transforming rocket car again!" Annie gushed. "That one we had back in Alto Mare was cool, even if I crashed it…"

Sebastian sighed in exasperation. Annie could be annoying sometimes, though her fighting prowess and spying skills were unmatched, even among Team Rocket's elites. "Whatever, ask the hangar crew if they have one. I think they do, as long as it moves you around to the cities you can take whatever you want. I've updated the map with the ruin locations on the helicopter's computer. You can ask the hangar staff to move the data onto the vehicle that you two prefer. Now leave."

Oakley nodded and turned to leave, and Annie followed her as she did so. "Think we can actually find Ho-Oh?" Annie asked curiously.

"I don't know," Oakley answered sharply, eyes narrowing. "But we'll give it a try at least. Let's go!"

Sebastian watched as the two women walked away, and once they were out of sight, he turned around and resumed his work on Team Rocket's ultimate plan, the destructive _Project Incarceration_.

* * *

><p><strong>Author Notes:<strong> And with this, chapter 11 ends! It was a shorter chapter than usual, but I'm still happy about it. In it, we got to see some of the good guys and bad guys! I think I've given enough clues so you can figure out who the evil spirit is.

How was the new Legendary we met today? To all those of you who guessed that the Legendary Dragon from last chapter was Giratina, you were wrong! It was Giratina's _**daughter**_. It's a close guess, though. That I do admit.

This also means that everyone who voted that Giratina was the Lati twins' mother in my profile poll was wrong, as we saw; Giratina is already mated to Rayquaza, and has a daughter with him. Still, that's many options left! Who can it be? And before anyone asks, no, Skailyn is **not** the twin's mother. She's still an older teenager, after all.

Also, the Legendary Pokémon meetings won't stop here, because with the kid Latios' stories of his past, we will meet several new Legendaries next chapter! Isn't that cool?

Hope you guys enjoyed, stay tuned for Chapter 12!


	12. Friends Are Like Family

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.**

"Speech"

_'Thoughts'_

_"Telepathy" _

**Author Notes:** 12! 12! 12! Ugh, this chapter took forever to write for some reason… this chapter had a lot of difficulty to it. Plus, school, work and Pokémon Y are a horrible time-killing combination. If you guys want to battle me on Pokémon Y, I'll post my Friend code and info on my DeviantArt page soon.

I'd like to deeply thank two of my beta readers, **Ri2** and **Shakari**, for their massive and extensive help with this chapter. Without them it wouldn't be posted anytime soon. Thanks a lot, guys!

After this embarrassing situation, the next chapter should come out a _lot_ sooner. Also, get ready._ Very_ emotional chapter ahead!

**Chapter 12 – Friends Are Like Family**

* * *

><p>Night had already fallen on the Petalburg Woods and a dark silence had filled the forest, barely illuminated by the moonlight. Inside one of the rooms of the Pokémon center, the legendary dragon twins were currently resting. "How are you feeling, Latias?" Latios asked his sister softly. She was lying on the upper bed of one of the bunk beds in the room Ash and his friends had decided to stay in for the night. The slightly older Eon Dragon was hovering a couple feet above the bunk bed, his bright red eyes focused on his red sibling.<p>

Latias let out a very soft and gentle sigh, having awakened an hour ago after the antidote Nurse Joy had administered to her had taken full effect and completely nullified the effects of the drugs Rico had injected her with during the battle earlier that day. "I'm still tired… and I have a bit of a headache, but I think I'm fine… it's nothing I can't handle," the red and white dragoness responded slowly, pausing slightly every few words as she expressed her feelings. She closed her eyes gradually while keeping her head rested on the pillow. "It's nothing you need to worry too much over, brother," she added kindly.

Latios smiled lovingly and leaned down to gently nuzzle his sister's neck. "Well, I always worry for you," he told her, trailing upwards along her neck with his nuzzling and, when he reached her head, gave her cheek a kiss. "I always have, from when we were kids all the way to the present."

Latias let out a soft purr and leaned into her brother's comforting touch. "I know you do, but I'm not the same little girl from Alto Mare anymore. I've grown since leaving," she protested, her voice cheered and not hiding her delight at the attention her sibling was giving her.

Latios chuckled slightly at her claim, shaking his head once. "Well, I've had a big part in raising you so I know that, and while I admit you've grown, you still have a long way to go. You can still be childish and spoiled at times," he remarked, still keeping his head pressed to her. "And often need guidance."

Latias pouted cutely. "That's not fair, you always have the upper hand in our arguing," she complained.

"I'm only telling the truth," the blue Eon Dragon replied as he rubbed the length of her slender neck once more. "I'm just glad that you're fine, along with everyone else. We got through this ordeal together as a team."

Latias looked down, feeling saddened. "We're all okay except Larvitar," she commented sullenly.

Latios frowned sadly, as he couldn't deny that as much as he wanted. Larvitar had woken up several hours ago, much earlier than Latias, and was still in a very shaky emotional state despite everyone's best efforts to lift his spirits. "I hope our little tales make him feel better and sate his and everyone else's curiosity," Latios mumbled softly. Soon after Latias had awakened from her forcefully induced sleep, he had asked her about what Larvitar had asked him to do, showing everyone bits of their past as orphans at Alto Mare, and how some of their lifelong friends had been there for them to help the two dragons grow up. He knew that meant telling everyone of some of the Legendaries they knew outside of Ho-Oh, something that left Latios with doubts as they had always decided to be secretive about the matter. To his surprise, Latias had agreed a lot more readily than he had expected her to. With her agreement in mind, he had begun to work harder on planning what he would show to them. "I'm just still unsure of telling them," Latios added after a long period of contemplative silence. "I mean, it's something we rarely tell _anyone_. Seriously, the only humans who ever knew about the other legendaries have long since passed away."

"Latios, they're our friends and we should trust them," she chided him, voice tender. "I know we've never enjoyed talking about our past due to how complicated it sometimes got, but we are mostly over it now… I think. Our friends trust us deeply. Ash, Brock, Bianca and all of their Pokémon, they've all shown us nothing but kindness and compassion ever since we've met them. I'm sure we can trust them with these bits of our past," Latias insisted as she kept herself laid down on the bed, but kept her gaze looking up to her brother's face. "Plus, think of our Legendary Pokémon friends. They would want our new friends to know of them."

"I guess so…" Latios conceded, still looking slightly unsure about the topic, but it was clear Latias' positive explanation had reassured him greatly.

"Plus, Larvitar really feels he can connect with us because we understand his feelings and his fears. It'll do him good to know about how we handled the same situation he has right now," Latias affirmed, smiling gently. "By knowing how we dealt with it, he can find ways to deal with it too. Friends are family. He needs to learn that, and it's our duty to teach him." The Eon Dragoness sounded determined.

"He's very eager to hear it," Latios agreed. "I've seen how he's been since he woke up. I hope this cheers him up from the big disappointment he took today about his mother not being in Rico's possession. I don't like to see him so down," he added sadly.

Latias nodded. "I don't like to see him like that either, that's why we're doing this," she said. "Also, everyone else is really interested in this in general, so it'll be a good bonding moment as a group. Ash is especially fascinated with the topic." She smiled at the thought of the boy.

Latios smirked at her. "Oh, of course you're eager to tell Ash, you want to get points in your favor about your crush on him," he teased, leaning down slightly and nudging her face to put emphasis on the tease. The effect on the dragoness was instantaneous. Latias' cheeks began to blush a bright red as she let out a squeal of embarrassment. Her eyes glowed as she grabbed a pillow psychically, smacked Latios' face away with it, and then hid her face under it. Latios stifled a laugh at her reaction.

"Don't tell him anything!" Latias yelled embarrassedly, her shrill voice muffled between the bed and the pillow.

"I won't tell him anything. That's why I teased you while we're alone." Latios leaned down, his face close to the pillow. "I won't spoil anything," he promised gently, but his voice still kept traces of the amusement he felt at his sister's embarrassment. "Plus, it's very amusing to poke fun at you." He grinned.

"Thank you," Latias said sarcastically while rolling her eyes, not that Latios could see it due to the pillow covering her head.

"Well, if you think I should tell him-" Latios started.

"No!" Latias shouted, hurling the pillow at him psychically.

Latios easily caught it with his own mental powers and put it back down on the bed. "Thought so," he said, smirking.

Latias glared up at him. Latios smiled at her lovingly. Latias' glare rapidly faded into a gentle smile of her own. "I love you, Latios," she stated, her voice not hiding her adoration for her brother.

"I love you too, sister," Latios answered with equal fondness as he hovered down and pressed himself to Latias, hugging her with his arms as he rubbed his head against her own in an affectionate nuzzle.

Latias let out a soft exhalation, enjoying the moment with her sibling. "When are the others coming back?" Latias questioned, gazing at her brother through half-lidded, relaxed eyes.

Latios' eyes glowed dimly as he did a small psychic scan of the rest of the Pokémon Center and the surrounding areas in mere instants. "Pidgeot and Pikachu are still nearby in the forest, and everyone else is apparently waiting for dinner. I guess they should be back in an hour or two," Latios responded. "What about you? Are you hungry? I can get you something to eat," the larger dragon offered.

"No, I'm not. I feel nauseated just thinking of food right now," Latias answered, grimacing slightly. Her body still felt funny after being sedated by Rico earlier that day.

Latios frowned, not liking the sound of that, but he knew there was nothing he could do but wait until she felt better on her own. "Alright," he said simply.

"Do you know which stories you'll show them?" Latias inquired, completely changing the subject. She tilted her head slightly in curiosity. "There are so many happy memories and sad ones too."

"Yeah, I do know," Latios replied. "I've spent most of the day thinking about it, and I feel I have a very good idea as to what I'm going to show them. It should be the best moments that will help us get the point across."

"That's nice," Latias said, smiling. She was looking forward to seeing what Latios' decisions were. "Need any help with it?" she offered.

"Yeah," Latios replied, humming with a thoughtful expression. "First, I want you to think of the same moments that I have in mind, and then we'll try to correlate them to make sure my memory of them is accurate. I'll also need your version of them so I can make small edits to the memories to make them, uh, third person view? I think that's what it's called," Latios continued, pausing to look at her.

"Yes, it's called third person view," Latias confirmed to him, amused that he didn't know right away. "But, what do you mean exactly with making it in third person view? It's a memory, not television."

"It'd be very awkward if I show them the memories from _my_ perspective and sight. If you let me see your sight and memories, I should be able to compare the two and construct a third person view of it. Kinda like how television shows are displayed, get it?" Latios explained. "It'd be less confusing and easier for everyone else to see."

"Oh, yeah, that's a good point. So we'll be making our life a television show, then?" Latias laughed at the idea. "Anyway, that's a good decision, Latios. It'll definitely make the memories better."

"Plus, I can also fill any memory gaps I might have. It's good we psychics have a very accurate memory, so between the two of us we're bound to cover them perfectly," Latios commented. "So, let's start. I want to be done by the time everyone returns from dinner."

"Alright," Latias acknowledged, eyes glowing as she connected her mind to her brother's and together, both began to construct an accurate retelling of their memories.

Sometime afterwards, during which the twins had been working on constructing their memory scenes as best they could, Ash and his friends finished their dinner and were heading back to the room. "How much do you know of their past?" Ash asked, gazing at Bianca.

Bianca gave Ash a blank stare. "Ash, before we met you, I had no way to talk to Latios or Latias. There was a Pokéspeech barrier. The most we could do was write text notes. And when they _finally_ got telepathy so we could freely talk, they left with you. So, I haven't gotten the chance to talk to them about their past in detail. Well, at least the past that is older than my own memories."

"Oh," Ash mumbled, disappointed. "Good point, I guess," he conceded.

"I'm curious as to how it feels to be over one hundred years old and psychic. I don't have nearly as much age as them and I have trouble remembering all of my past," Pikachu commented. "I wonder how it feels. Sad I'll never know. I guess it sucks being a mortal."

"I can't remember what we ate yesterday…" Ash muttered sadly, making everyone laugh slightly.

After some more walking along the hallway, they reached their room and made their way inside. After exchanging warm greetings with the two dragons, Ash, Bianca and Brock slowly settled in the room after entering, taking a seat on the floor with their legs crossed while facing the bed in which Latias was resting on. Ash grabbed two of his Pokéballs and released Phanpy and Larvitar. Two bright flashes of white light briefly dazzled the room as the two infants were released. "Hi, Daddy!" Phanpy greeted energetically, hopping over to his surrogate father and nuzzling his side.

Ash smiled and petted the small Ground-type's head. "Hi to you too, Phanpy," he said in response to the child. The Pallet Town trainer then looked up at Larvitar. "Feeling better?" he asked, concerned for the emotional state of his second surrogate son.

Larvitar let out a soft, disappointed sigh. "I… think so…" he said uncertainly. The big barrage of despairing emotions that accompanied the knowledge that his mother wasn't with Rico had disappeared, now leaving only an empty disappointment in the boy's heart.

Ash frowned and reached out with his arm, gently running his hand over Larvitar's head, being careful to round the Pokémon's rectangular horn-like protrusion. Larvitar let out a small moan of content at the attention and walked over to Ash, pressing to his side. "We all love you, Larvitar, and you know that," Ash said with a kind smile.

Brock nodded. "Whatever Latias and Latios have cooked up for us is still done specifically for you, Larvitar."

"So enjoy it," Bianca added, although she too was extremely eager to see what the twins were about to show them. She wondered how much about them and their past she didn't know.

"Have fun, kiddo." Pikachu smiled, and then glanced at Latios. "Don't mess up," the electric-type told the psychic dragon. Latios rolled his eyes and didn't answer.

Larvitar nodded slightly, gratified by the support everyone was showing him as he gazed at Ash and then at the group all around him. Latias smiled and finally levitated off the bed she had been resting on to float beside her larger sibling. They both nodded at each other to signal the beginning as their eyes began to glow. _"So let's begin before it gets any later, we need our sleep after all,"_ Latias announced, her voice surprisingly formal. _"Please don't interrupt and reserve your questions until we're done."_

"_This happened when we were a_ lot_ younger than today, when we were around half of our current age. About sixty years ago,"_ Latios explained. _"I had fallen badly ill, and without _her_ help… things might have turned grim for me…"_ With everyone's attention on them, they began to project their memories into the minds of the entire group gathered around them.

…

Slowly, the scene began forming in their minds as clearly as if they were the ones living it. It was as if the secret garden of Alto Mare had come to life all around them instead of only being displayed in their minds. Within moments, they felt like their consciousness and focus were being completely sucked into the imaginative scene projected into their minds by the two Eon Dragons. The secret garden looked as gorgeous as ever in the memory, but, it also looked very different than all of them remembered it as being the last time they had been there. The trees were definitely smaller, and there were fewer cement walkways and ornaments dotted around the place, the water canals seemed to occupy more space and upon closer inspection, it also seemed as if many species of plants were also different. It was clear that sixty years ago, the garden was much different than it was in the present.

On the base of one of the largest trees, Latios was resting in the cool shade provided by the vegetation above him. Unlike the Latios everyone knew in the present, the one in the memory looked very small, easily less than half the size of the present form of the dragon. His wings looked a bit thicker and rounder with blunter tips and edges, and his face looked softer and gentler while his long neck seemed a bit shorter, giving him a rather adorable appearance. Besides him was Latias, who looked even smaller than him, and her even softer features had a very infantile look to them, overall making the cute dragoness look even much more so at such a young age.

Latias let out a playful, childish whine. "Come on, Latios, let's play! It's already past midday and you're _still_ being lazy. What's wrong with you? You've been like this for two whole days!" Latias urged him, shaking his side energetically.

Latios flinched slightly at the contact and mustered up his strength to answer, doing his best to attempt to sound like he was fine. "I have… uh, I think I have a bit of a headache…" he paused to resist the urge to cough. "I'll get up soon… sorry, you can play around in the meantime," Latios answered, his voice weak, even if the ill dragon tried to make it appear as strong as he could.

The child Latias stared at him in confusion and frustration. "You said that yesterday… and the day before yesterday… and you didn't get up all day long! I wanna play! I'm bored!" she protested, completely oblivious to the fact that Latios was hiding something, much to the relief of the blue dragon.

Latios winced, both at the pain that was wracking his body and at the fact that he was annoying his sister. _'I'm starting to run out of excuses… I can't let her realize I'm sick…'_ he thought to himself, his mind racing to find a new excuse to hide his poor condition from his sister. He disliked upsetting her.

Latias blinked, tilting her head. "Is something wrong?" she asked her brother, her tone suspicious.

Latios shook his head rapidly, even if it only served to further aggravate his painful headache. "Don't worry, I'm fine!" he lied. "Just… not a good day in general," he answered, doing his best to hide the obvious problem.

Latias frowned, disappointed. "But-" she started, but was cut off by something erupting out of the nearest water canal in a large upward blast of water.

The Pokémon that exited the water canal landed gracefully on her four paws besides it, the grass and bushes lining the inland waterway rippling due to the windy gale that seemed to suddenly pick up with the being's entry. The plants glistened under the sunlight from the moisture that rapidly gathered on it, carried by the watery breeze that accompanied the large blue Pokémon's appearance, her large purple mane and elegant ribbon-like tails flowing neatly at her sides with the wind as the blue crystal-like hexagonal formation on her forehead shone brightly under the sun. "Hello, Latias and Latios," she greeted with a calm, breezy voice that seemed to resonate like a crystal-clear spring.

"Sui!" Latias cried in delight, rapidly racing to the Legendary Pokémon's side.

Suicune smiled as the tiny Latias tackled her chest, nuzzling her. "Hello, Latias, it's good to see you too," she said kindly, lowering her head to press it against the back of the tiny Latias. "How have you been, dear?" Suicune inquired.

"Booooooooooooooored!" Latias answered, drawing out her response dramatically. "Latios is being lazy and he doesn't wanna play!" she whined.

Suicune shook her head slightly. "It's not that he doesn't want to play, honey. He's just…" she paused, looking at Latios, who was rapidly shaking his head in distress. Getting the idea, Suicune glanced down at Latias. "He's just not in a playing mood, I think," she lied, agreeing to follow Latios' plea this one time.

Latias pouted. "Awwww," she said in discontent. Suddenly she paused, and glanced at Latios and then at Suicune, a bright idea forming in her head. "Sooo…" she began, clapping her claws together in hope. "Now that we're all here, we can play! He'll get in a better mood faster if it's three of us! The more the merrier!" she squealed excitedly, doing happy loops in the air around Suicune.

Suicune made her way towards Latios, smiling softly at Latias' excited antics. "Well, I need to 'convince' Latios first," she told the dragoness.

Latias huffed in annoyance, glaring at Latios half-playfully. "He's being more boring than usual," she commented.

"I'll play with you in the meantime, Latias," Suicune announced, making Latias squeal in delight. She glanced at the water in the canal, her eyes and crest glowing brightly as she did so. Slowly, a quadrupedal figure began to rise out of the water, gradually taking the shape of Suicune's elegant body. After a few instants, the figure seemed to solidify and began to gain coloration exactly the same as the Legendary it was based on. Once the formation was complete, the water-made Substitute, which looked perfectly identical to Suicune, walked silently across the grass. "How about we play a game of tag?" Suicune suggested, and as she spoke, her water-substitute rapidly dashed away.

"Yes!" Latias nodded happily in delight, and rapidly rocketed after the water imitation, intent on catching it.

"There, that takes care of her," Suicune said, slowly walking towards the downed and ill Latios. "I'll be sure to keep her away from us with my Substitute," she informed him.

Finally, now that Latias was gone, Latios released the coughs he was desperately holding back. He coughed several times very harshly, blood dribbling down the side of his mouth after he was done. "Th-thanks," he spoke, his voice barely audible. A couple of tears slipped past his cheeks from the pain and gravity of his condition.

"You don't need to hide it from her, you know," Suicune chided gently, her voice tender. "You don't have to pretend like you're fine when in reality you're terrible." She shook her head a couple of times in disappointment.

Latios looked down, ashamed. He felt worse when he saw the blood that stained the grass in front of him, blood he had just coughed up. "I… d-don't want… h-her to… see me… like this…" he answered hoarsely, taking long pauses to catch his breath. "I'm her big… brother… I'm supposed to be strong and…" he paused, coughing harshly a couple times. His eyes filled with even more tears. "I don't… want her to… see me weak…"

Suicune let out a soft sigh, lying down in front of Latios at a distance so that her head was just above him and her front paws were at his sides. Gently, she used one of her paws to lift his head so he was looking at her face. "There's no shame in being ill, Latios. Hiding it from her is just going to hurt you more and speed up your deterioration. She's not going to think you're weak just because you're sick. Your sister deserves the truth," she said soothingly. Latios looked into her ruby-red eyes, his own dark-red eyes tearful. "I think that you're very brave and strong, but also very foolish, for trying to hide it from her so she doesn't worry for you, or see you as 'weak' or anything like that. It says a lot about how strong and determined you are as a brother. But the truth is that she'll never think of you as weak. You're her big brother. You're her hero, the one she looks up to the most in life. No matter what condition you're in, she'll think of you as the best." Suicune paused to let the ill dragon absorb those words and think them over, and once she felt enough time had passed she made her final statement. "I'm going to tell her."

Latios gasped, shaking his head in protest. "N-no!" he yelled, but that immediately made him wince as his sore throat was filled with a wave of pain.

Suicune nodded once, leaning down to softly nuzzle Latios' cheek. "Hiding it from her won't do you, or her, any good. But don't worry. I'll be here for the entire duration of your recovery period. Trust that none of us will think lowly of you for a lapse of weakness. We all have them." She gave his cheek and neck a gentle, comforting lick.

The infant Eon Dragon let out a small squeal as Suicune's rough tongue tickled him slightly, but afterwards he glanced downwards, feeling saddened but thoughtful. "Okay…" Latios murmured after a very long pause.

"That's the spirit!" Suicune cheered, making Latios jump in surprise slightly. She leaned down and nuzzled the comparatively very tiny dragon again. "You're my brave little dragon."

Latios smiled at her, pressing into the warm, comforting nuzzle of the water Legendary. "Th-thanks…" he said in gratitude, a light blush on his face. He then coughed harshly again. "Ugh… Will I… be… okay?" he asked, fearing for his wellbeing.

Suicune gazed down at him, her gaze evaluating. "Untreated? No, you wouldn't have lasted long with your tender age. Thankfully, I was warned of your situation soon enough and will be able to cure you. Yesterday I stopped by quickly to see what was wrong, and left to get the needed remedies, which I now have with me."

Latios looked at her, puzzled. "Who… who warned you?" he asked. Suicune gazed at the stone pedestal that held the Soul Dew, needing no words to get her answer across. "Oh…" Latios whispered, not sure how to respond to that.

Suicune's dual white ribbon-like tails slowly began to reach into her mane and with amazing dexterity pulled out a very large pouch made out of woven leaves. "The illness you have can be cured with natural extracts from certain plants, but it'll take you several weeks to recover. I'll stay here until then and make sure you take your treatment on time. And of course, tend to all your needs."

Latios nodded, smiling up at her. "Th-thanks a lot, Suicune…You're the best." He coughed again, making Suicune frown slightly.

"You don't need to thank me, Latios," the Aurora Pokémon answered, her gaze focused on him. "I'm always available to take care of you and your sister," Suicune added gently, returning the smile. Her tails again showed amazing dexterity by rapidly untying the large leaf-woven pouch, revealing several smaller pouches, all made of leaves, inside it. "You'll be feeling much better soon." Suicune leaned down, and pressed her muzzle to Latios' check, giving it a tender kiss.

Latios closed his eyes, pressing to the contact of the water-legendary. He made no moves to object or resist and let her apply the needed natural treatments on him.

…

"_And that's it,"_ Latios announced, suddenly cutting off the memory. Latios and Latias retreated from everyone's minds. All of their friends slowly opened their eyes, slowly processing the information that had been projected into their minds by the two psychic Eon Dragons.

"Wow, is that the same Suicune I met back at that forest in Johto?" Ash asked curiously, bringing his hand to rest contemplatively across his chin as he thought back to that occasion. "You know, the one forest that Celebi tried to kill us all in as an evil twig monster thing?" he added, shuddering at the memory of the monstrous mess of trees towering over him while charging a Hyper Beam that would have surely killed him had Suicune not saved him and Sam.

Latios chuckled, picking up Ash's thoughts. _"Yes, that's the same Suicune."_

"She's really nice, isn't she? She saved us, and well, she was really impressive in that scene you showed us." Brock nodded once. "I wish I had the ability to talk to Pokémon like Ash. It'd be a really good experience to talk to her."

"To be fair, I didn't talk to her either," Ash commented. "No Pokéspeech back then."

"To be fair, I didn't _meet _her at all," Bianca said sarcastically. Ash and Brock sweatdropped, but didn't say anything as they knew she was right.

"She's… pretty," Larvitar remarked slowly, a bit hesitant. "I… liked the way she talked to you two and the way she showed she really cares a lot." He paused and looked at Latios. "Is she a really close friend?"

Latios nodded. _"Yes. Suicune is a very close friend of us. Not _the_ closest, but she's high up there. She visits us almost as often as Ho-Oh herself. She's always been a very trustworthy friend that Latias and I have never doubted."_

"Wow, really?" Bianca asked curiously, greatly surprised. She hadn't heard anything about a Suicune near Alto Mare, _ever_. "Do you know the other two beasts? Raikou and Entei, I believe they're called. I've heard the Legends have them as a trio of sorts."

"_Yeah, she has,"_ Latias answered Bianca's initial question. _"And yes, we know all of them. They've all paid their visits. Entei the least, as he has it the hardest getting to Alto Mare." _She giggled, recalling the silly ways Entei sometimes had to use to get to the water city of Alto Mare._ "Raikou and Suicune had it easier, so they visited us the most."_

"_As a member of one of Ho-Oh's two groups of Legendary Beasts, she was often tasked with watching over us, along with the other five,"_ Latios explained. _"They didn't do it exactly because Ho-Oh _ordered_ them to do so. They were all more than happy to help us without being asked the instant Ho-Oh took interest in us. Though Ho-Oh did make sure they were informed whenever she would be unavailable so they could take turns in their visits," _the blue Eon Dragon continued.

"Wait, wait, hold on," Brock interrupted, holding his hands up at the dragon. "Ho-Oh has more than three legendary beasts? I thought the legends surrounding her and the beasts said she only created three out of that burning tower in Ecruteak City," Brock continued, very confused. "I remember Morty talking about it."

"Yeah, I remember that too, and he seemed really fixated that he was right, seeing as he denied us seeing Ho-Oh at first," Pikachu remarked.

Latias laughed in amusement_. "Human folklore is often wrong about us Legendaries. You have no idea how many times my brother has had to subtly correct them at Alto Mare because they got stuff about us wrong_." She stifled a harder laugh, as many fun memories came to her mind. _"Or they outright made up entirely stupid stuff about us. Though, Latios definitely knows more about Legendary Pokémon culture and history than I do, seeing as he always listened to Ho-Oh's boring lectures." _

Latios also struggled to not burst out laughing while nodding in agreement to Latias' initial comment. _"There was a time about fifty years ago that Alto Mare's population got the odd idea that we died every year, and we picked humans to mate with before our deaths so we could create the next set of annual guardians,"_ Latios told them. _"It led to large fights over trying to prove who was worthy of parenting the new guardian god and becoming immortal in the process or something like that. It was chaotic, and rather… stupid."_

"… How would they become immortal if the guardians are supposed to be yearly?" Bianca asked skeptically while narrowing her eyes at the dragon.

"_There's a reason I said it's stupid and illogical,"_ Latios stated flatly.

"_And that's not even the worst of it,"_ Latias mumbled drily, grimacing at the memories. Everyone stared at them, not entirely sure they wanted to know. _"We can spend hours talking about it, but it's pointless. So let's go back to the original topic."_

"Living over one hundred years really seems to give one lots of interesting stories to tell," Brock said, chuckling at their folklore chit-chat. Ash just stared, trying to picture what they had said, but it was clear he was still more focused on the fresh memories of the twins' first tale.

"_Yes, it does. Anyway, like Latias said, back to the original topic,"_ Latios started before anyone could make any further questions about something he wasn't eager to talk about. _"I'm not entirely sure what the origins of Ho-Oh's first legendary beasts are. I don't think I ever got around to asking that… but, the first ones she's had… for pretty much forever, they've sorta always been there with her from the start or something like that. They've definitely existed way longer than Ecruteak City itself. I don't know how to explain that one, sorry. I think that's the best way I can put it. They could be almost as old as Ho-Oh herself."_ Latios hummed, gathering his thoughts about it.

"Who are the second ones, then?" Bianca asked curiously. She had to admit she was surprised that the twins got visits from other Legendary Pokémon, especially such a high number of them.

"_The second ones are those that she created more recently, a bit more than a century and a half ago, from the burning tower that Morty mentioned at Ecruteak city. It's actually very easy to tell them apart from the 'originals,' if you'd like to call them that. The new ones are different in color. Kinda like Ash's Noctowl, it's what humans call 'shiny' Pokémon. Not sure where they got that silly term from, but that's the best way to describe them,"_ Latios explained_. "But I won't mention more of them, because I have a story about them as well. You'll meet them there."_

Everyone nodded, acknowledging the dragon's explanation. Latias glanced at Larvitar and glided downwards to him, as the rock-type had been quiet while watching everyone talk about the legendary beasts. _"What did you think about that tale?"_ she asked, a soft smile tracing her lips. _"As our friend, Suicune did a great job in caring for Latios in his time of illness. Almost like any parent would."_

Larvitar nodded once, his gaze a bit lost as he treasured the memory, and started imagining Ash or the twins doing something similar for him. "How long did it take Uncle Latios to get better?" the rock-type infant asked curiously.

"_About a month,"_ Latios answered flatly, not sounding the least bit ecstatic. _"It was annoyingly painful. And be it in person or via water substitutes, Suicune was there every single minute."_

"Did you get that sick any other time?" Pikachu questioned. "And what was the exact disease you got sick with to begin with?"

Latios shook his head. _"Nope, I didn't."_ He grimaced. _"And that's a good thing because that was easily the worst month I've had. As for which disease, I have no idea. If Suicune called it by name, I wasn't paying attention. I don't remember exactly." _

"_Well, Suicune made that month livable,"_ Latias remarked. _"And that goes for both of us, as she kept me from being bored." _She paused and once again redirected her attention to the infant rock-type._ "See Larvitar, Suicune's a good friend, and she did an amazing job at taking care of us when Latios was sick. If you got ill, you can be sure that we'd take care of you like Suicune did to us."_

Larvitar smiled at his friends, and nodded once. "Thanks for showing me that, I liked it a lot." He gazed around at everyone he considered his friends. When his gaze reached Phanpy, the ground-type playfully nuzzled him.

"_You're welcome, Larvitar,"_ Latios replied kindly. _"So, ready for the next scene?"_ Everyone nodded, closing their eyes and relaxing. _"This one was over one hundred years ago, when Latias and I were still babies. Don't squeal at how adorable we were."_ He chuckled at his own words. _"It was also the hardest one to make up, as our memories of this were hard to construct, so it's a bit short. Also, this one has a Legend I'm sure most of you will recognize very well."_ His eyes began to glow, and soon Latias' followed.

…

Unlike the first memory, in which they were greeted by a calm and sunny day shining over Alto Mare, this time it was completely different. The midnight sky was eerily dark, murky with black clouds and blurry thanks to the strong rain and striking winds that accompanied the powerful storm that marred the city. Occasionally the sky lit up with bright flashes of lightning streaking across the sky, an ominous thunder booming across the landscape immediately afterwards.

The next thing that surprised everyone watching the memory was the sight of the city itself. Like Latios had mentioned, the time presented to them was over one hundred years in the past. As such, the city was vastly different than the one everyone remembered from the present time. It was a lot smaller in expanse by a very large margin, and save for several buildings in the center of the city, nearly all of the rest didn't rise higher than the first floor. Most of the canals were lined with sand and dirt instead of concrete. The many areas of the city were connected with wooden bridges instead of stone. All the boats that lined the canals were wooden gondolas of antique design that were not very different than the ones Lorenzo built. The town looked like a ghost town at the moment as everyone was taking shelter from the powerful rainstorm.

When the memory finally focused on the garden, everyone could see that it was also very different. It did not have any large trees yet, most of them were still small trees in development. Only a few trees of significant size were present, especially near the pedestal that held the Soul Dew.

In a small hollow underneath the largest tree in the entire garden were two infant dragon twins. They were small, very small. Even the large Latios they knew and loved was all but a small infant, tender and innocent. They looked very cute, their necks and wings seeming a lot shorter than the proportions they had in the present time, especially the wings, which while still looking rigid did not look quite as solid as the ones on their grown-up counterparts. Their faces reflected the youthful, playful innocence of babies.

However, their adorable looks didn't help their current situation as both were in clear distress. Being mere infants, the thunderstorm currently striking Alto Mare was too much of an overwhelming experience for them. The fact that they were dragons with such sharp natural senses played badly against them, as every thunderclap sounded like a piercing blast to their sensitive ears, and every lightning strike was a terrifyingly ominous flare of illumination that only highlighted the harsh reality of the thunderstorm. Even the sounds of the rain battering against the water in the canals, the sand and grass of the garden, and the wood and stone of the surrounding structures created a continuous clatter that seemed to be never-endingly agonizing. And to make matter worse, it was _cold_. The storm brought in a very cold temperature with it. Thankfully, they weren't wet, as the tree's leaves and the hollow shielded them from the water, sparing them from an even colder experience.

Latias screamed in fright and dug deeper into the hollow at a particularly loud and powerful boom of thunder. She wept in fear, hidden under the protection of her brother and the tree they were hidden inside of, absolutely terrified. However, the young Latios was not faring any better than she was. Still being an infant, the baby Eon was also scared by the overwhelming barrage of attacks against their senses that the storm generated. He too was crying, equally panicked by the situation they were trapped in. There was nothing the two baby dragons could do other than cuddle against each other, hoping their mutual presence would help them overcome the terrifying nature of the thunderstorm. However, that seemed nearly impossible.

Fortunately, before anything could get any worse for the two distressed infants, a light appeared in the sky, a gentle red light that steadily grew larger and larger, splitting the darkness of the clouds. The light rapidly took the shape of a gigantic avian Pokémon with a colorful plumage of red, white, green and gold. Ho-Oh rapidly descended upon the garden and landed softly in the center of the hidden haven, her talons barely making any noise when she landed. She seemed to adopt an anxious and worried expression when she heard the distinct crying sounds of the two toddlers. "Latias? Latios?" she called out in a loud tone of voice to catch their attention, but made sure her voice was still as soothing and tender as possible.

The weeping was cut short for a few instants. Several long seconds passed, as both dragons slowly registered the voice, and then two squeals echoed, followed by a pair of rapid blurs, one red and one blue, crashing into Ho-Oh's soft, warm, white chest. The two dragons cried harder, pressing themselves to the comforting company of the massive fire legendary. "Shhh, stop crying my darlings, I'm here," Ho-Oh whispered tenderly, lowering her head and using her beak to nuzzle the two children.

Ho-Oh roosted herself, gently seating in the middle of the garden as comfortably as she could, and began to accommodate the two dragons in a comfy position between her chest and a wing she had left folded over her breast. The feathers on her back began to slowly radiate a veil of heat which extended all around her, rapidly evaporating any rain before it could touch her or the dragons currently pressing to her chest. She made sure that the searing temperatures emanating from her back to keep the rain away didn't reach the two dragons. Instead, she let her chest and wing feathers radiate a soft, cozy warmness to provide the babies with a nice 'bed' to sleep on.

"Where are those blasted human caretakers?! They should be here with you two right now! Or have taken you to their home!" She sounded _angry_, exceedingly so. The twins looked up at her with round and teary eyes, not really answering her. Glancing down at the two frightened baby dragon curled under her wing, Ho-Oh then turned her face forward, glaring out into the dark, murky night. "I'll be sure to have… a talk with those humans later. And they had better have a _damned_ good excuse to have left you out here alone on a night like this. If it turns out that they were just scared of getting a bit wet…" she growled, as her eyes seemed to burn with a flaming intensity.

Before Ho-Oh could finish, however, a flash of lightning split the sky, causing the infant twins to squeak in fear as the subsequent boom of thunder filled the air, the baby dragons pressing closer to Ho-Oh's breast for comfort. The twin's fear seemed to snap Ho-Oh out of her dark thoughts, as the phoenix-like Legend brought her face around close to the twins. "Shh, shh, it's okay, my dears. I'm here, I won't let anything hurt you," she said comfortingly, gently caressing the two with her beak. Almost immediately, the infant dragons calmed down.

"I'm sorry for taking so long, my dears. As soon as I learned hurricane was headed to Alto Mare I tried to get it broken up, but the needed Legendary wasn't nearby. So instead, I got here as fast as I could. I apologize for it," Ho-Oh said as she looked down at them, her eyes reflecting warm affection. The two infants looked up at her, love and trust in their eyes, and then nuzzled her chest, knowing that she'd do her best to protect them.

Ho-Oh looked around her, and slowly, the wind surrounding them began to circle the garden. Being a Legendary Pokémon charged with being a great Guardian of the sky, Ho-Oh possessed a naturally high and adept control of the wind and its similar elements. As Ho-Oh saw a lighting strike appear in the sky far away, she activated her powers and rapidly created a large, thin barrier all around the sacred garden of still wind that almost seemed frozen on the spot. The booming, explosive sound of the thunder never came. With the air solidified and held still by Ho-Oh's powers, the sound was unable to get through, leaving it echoing outside the shield bubble while keeping a tranquil silence inside.

Latias and Latios seemed to detect her action, as both pressed tighter against the great Legendary's chest. "Go to sleep, my darlings," she said gently, her voice soothing and loving. Ho-Oh took a few deep breaths as she prepared herself, and then began to sing. A loving and blissful sound filled the air bubble she had created, completely drowning out any leftover sounds the storm raging outside created. Ho-Oh's singing voice was pure heaven for the two infants. Their fear was completely gone and replaced with a peaceful and serene aura of love projected by the fire Legendary. As the perfect notes of Ho-Oh's ethereal, beautiful and soothing voice began to take effect on the baby twins, they began to swiftly fall asleep…

…And as the twins fell asleep, so did the memory begin to fade into darkness…

…

Bianca cooed, opening her eyes. "Ooooh, you two were totally adorable as hatchlings! I'm definitely drawing that sometime soon. How old exactly were you guys in that memory?" she asked, glancing at each of the two dragons and still imagining them as hatchlings.

Latias giggled at Bianca's reaction, though she was expecting it. _"I can't remember exactly, but we were babies. That was over a century ago."_

Larvitar smiled, his eyes still closed in bliss. "Ho-Oh's voice is..." he blushed slightly, feeling a bit embarrassed at how touched he felt by the tunes that seemed to still play in his mind."Very pretty…" he said after a pause. "It was so lovely."

Latios smiled back at the child and nodded. _"Yes, Ho-Oh's voice is very pretty when she sings. And she sang a lot when we were little. She stopped singing as much when we grew up."_

Pikachu smirked at Latios. "So, you were afraid of storms?" His voice was teasing.

"_I was a baby!"_ Latios argued. _"And we were alone!"_ Latios crossed his arms in annoyance. _"So, it's perfectly excusable."_ He glared at Pikachu, making the electric-type chuckle.

"Is she the one that visited the most?" Larvitar questioned, tilting his head. "She seemed very nice to you two and very caring."

_"Nope, she's not the one with the biggest number of visits in terms of raw numbers. That's the Legendary we're saving our last story for. But Ho-Oh does have the second highest number of visits and I'm pretty sure that if she had the means that the Legendary I just mentioned has, she'd definitely visit a lot more. Anyway, Ho-Oh's visits were for a lot of reasons, from taking care of us, to helping us in anything we needed, to having fun. A lot of her visits also included her teaching us stuff. And also, her visits were long. Many times she decided to stay for several days."_ Latios laughed. _"So, her visits were always nice, relaxing, and educational if you paid attention_." At that he shot his sister a very pointed look.

"_Ho-Oh's educational visits were booooooooooooooooooooring,"_ Latias whined loudly, drawing her voice out spectacularly. _"The other times I do admit she was always awesome. At least when she wasn't giving lectures."_

_"It wasn't boring!" _Latios snapped indignantly._ "Everything she taught me was very interesting! She even talked about how the DMA was created and how it worked! She also spoke about many other Pokémon, regions and their histories, and also taught me about many other very awesome things!"_ Latios shot back at her, and then looked at the group. _"She also taught me a lot about other Legendaries, though never personal stuff. She said that those weren't her stories to tell, that'd we'd learn about them when we met them."_

Latias giggled in amusement, but conceded her brother the point. _"Suuuuuure." _Latias had always greatly enjoyed how much passion Latios put into his arguments when it came to defending Ho-Oh.

Larvitar looked at both of them, glancing between them and seeing the clear joy in their attitudes and voices at talking about Ho-Oh. "She is a very important friend for you two, isn't she?" he asked softly, relishing in the knowledge that he finally learned about one of the twin's best friends and family.

Latios nodded instantly. _"Yes, she was. She visited a lot and often helped take care of us if she was in the area. She's easily one of the most important friends we've ever had. Latias and I would both be in much worse shape if it wasn't for her."_

"You've always shown you know a lot Uncle Latios. All of that was taught by Ho-Oh?" Larvitar wondered curiously.

_"Yep."_ Latios nodded in confirmation. _"Ho-Oh is a very good teacher, if you would listen to her and pay attention."_ He glanced briefly at Latias. The red Eon Dragoness stuck her tongue out at him.

"You could say that she is for you, what Ash is for me?" The Larvitar's voice had been barely a soft whisper as he leaned into his surrogate parent's side. Ash wordlessly placed a hand on the rock-type, rubbing his side.

"_Yeah, that's a sort of correct statement. They play different roles, but I think they can be similar from your perspective,"_ Latios answered.

Larvitar smiled gently, enjoying the memory even more than the first one. "Thanks a lot for what you've shown us, Uncle Latios and Auntie Latias. I didn't know you two had friends like that. They helped you out so much…"

"You have the same valuable thing Larvitar," Ash reminded him. "You always do."

"Yep, all of us," Pikachu added. "Friendship is magic."

Larvitar hummed, nodding once, as Phanpy pressed to his side. "Will we meet any of them?" he asked.

Latias beamed at Larvitar and flew over towards him, picking him up and cuddling him close. _"Hopefully we'll meet a lot of them while we're traveling, more than just the few me and Latios already know. We only met a handful at Alto Mare. As for the ones we know, I'm pretty sure we'll see them all eventually,"_ she replied softly, her telepathic voice leaving a loving, soothing feeling in the child's mind.

Larvitar cuddled back against her, smiling. "Are you telling us about _all _of them right now?" he inquired, curious.

Latias planted a soft kiss on his cheek. "_Nope, we'll only be telling you about a couple of them for now,"_ the dragoness told him. She winked at him. _"We gotta keep some friends a secret. You all might meet them eventually."_

Larvitar pouted. "Aw."

"I feel a bit left out that I didn't see any of them…" Bianca commented, gazing down with a thoughtful stare. "You have so many friends other than me and I didn't even have any clue about it. I'm very surprised."

"_Well, to be fair, as I've stated before, the older we got the more we were capable of defending ourselves and surviving on our own. As such, their visits for protection and help were required less and less, creating larger time gaps between their visits, leaving only recreational and friendly visits. During our time as babies and young children, the amount of visits shared by all our main caretaking Legendaries was really high. But you weren't even born by then. In the last decade or two, the number has declined a lot,"_ Latios explained. _"And that's when you've known us."_

Bianca nodded, accepting the explanation. "I guess that's a good point."

"So, what's the next story? I really like them," Larvitar interrupted impatiently, extremely pulled into the stories. Latias could feel through her empathy his great emotional interest in this, and most importantly, she could feel his emotional state slowly settling down.

"_Well, remember the 'shiny' legendary beasts we mentioned earlier? The ones Ho-Oh created about one hundred and fifty years ago from the burning tower of Ecruteak City?"_ Latias questioned everyone, glancing around.

"Yeah, I do," Ash answered. Larvitar, Phanpy and Pikachu nodded.

"Yes, what about them?" Brock asked. "Oh, they're next?"

"_Yes, our next story is about them, and it was a very important point in both my own and Latias' lives," _Latios announced. His eyes began to glow, and soon Latias' followed, as everyone was once again sucked into the memories of the two wondrous psychic dragons…

…

Rapidly, the scene began to form in their minds, and like the previous two times, they were drawn to the Secret Garden of Alto Mare. Unlike the previous two memories, in which the two dragons had been youngsters, the image of the two dragons presented to them was definitely older. In both size and appearance, they were very close to what Ash and his friends remembered the day they saw them for the first time at Alto Mare. However, the instant the memory materialized in their minds, they were assaulted with a barrage of angry emotions and the sounds of two angry dragons arguing.

Latias glared angrily at her brother, desolation radiating off of her and her eyes filled with tears. "I hate you!" screeched the young dragoness. "Why can't you just let me have this one thing!?" she questioned defiantly. "They weren't going to hurt me! They were nice!"

"They're _humans_, Latias! With a few very rare exceptions, they cannot be trusted!" Latios insisted, snapping at her.

"We can trust Lorenzo!" Latias countered, her voice a shrieking cry of anger.

"He's a rare exception, we've known him since he was born," Latios answered, narrowing his eyes.

"Aside from Lorenzo, the second I try making new friends, no, you say that's too much of a risk! How is that fair!? Just because you see everyone as being our enemies or being evil doesn't mean they _all_ are!" The glare she sent her brother wasn't as effective because of the wetness of her eyes, but it still was like a Sucker Punch to the gut. "That's you being paranoid! I'm an empath! I would have stayed away from them if I felt they weren't good people!"

"Even if they're 'good people' that doesn't mean we should just go around showing ourselves to whoever walks near us!" Latios snarled. "What if they revealed the garden? Exposed _our_ secrets!?"

"They would have realized it was a secret for a reason! They wouldn't have told anyone! Heck, Latios, I've seen them around Alto Mare since they were toddlers, do you really think they would have done anything to risk the Guardian of Alto Mare who was willing to reveal herself to them and just wanted to be friends!?"

"Yes. Yes, they would have," Latios said firmly. "Maybe they wouldn't mean to, but humans are stupid and have a problem with loose lips and greed. I'm surprised Lorenzo hasn't screwed us over even by accident, to be honest."

The red dragoness clenched her eyes shut and grabbed her ears with her claws, shaking her head. "You're awful! No wonder you have _no_ friends at all! You can't bother to trust anybody, and hate that I can! I never want to see you again!" she shrieked, before diving into the water and racing away, the fresh water in the canal hiding her streaming tears.

"Ugh...that...that stupid...Gah! Just… why do girls have to be so dumb and annoying and… everything!?" Latios asked angrily to no one in particular, eyes flashing as an outburst of uncontrolled psychic power surged from him, causing some of the smaller trees and saplings around him to shatter and the water to ripple ominously.

"I hope that doesn't include me," a familiar voice said from behind him.

"Or me," said another familiar voice, which was rougher than the first one.

"Well, I can agree with you at times," a third, decidedly more masculine, voice added. Two feminine growls echoed, and the third voice chuckled in amusement.

Startled, Latios turned to see his friends, the 'shiny' legendary beast trio of Levina the Raikou, Krysta the Suicune, and Blayze the Entei. All of them stood taller and were clearly larger than Latios by a big margin, and were of different colorations than their older counterparts. "O-oh! Um...h-hi, you guys. I, uh, didn't notice you there," Latios said nervously, playing with his claws tensely.

"Clearly," Levina drawled, rolling her eyes.

"Obviously you didn't," Krysta added, glaring at him. "What was that all about?" she asked.

"It seemed like family problems, apparently?" Blayze guessed, glancing at his two sisters and then back at Latios. He then looked at the water which Latias had disappeared into and then turned to look at the youngest of the three beasts, Krysta. "Go and check on Latias, Krysta. We'll stay here with Latios." The Suicune nodded and dashed towards the pond, taking a mighty leap into the water and seamlessly melding with it and vanishing.

The largest of the three beasts walked towards the young Eon Dragon after Krysta had left them, and brushed against the dragon's side comfortingly. "So, would you like to explain what just happened? I don't think I've ever seen Latias that upset before, and certainly never at you in particular," Blayze asked. His tone was curious, not accusing the dragon of anything, yet.

Latios sighed sadly, taking comfort in the shiny Entei's words and presence. "Sibling spat, I guess?" he answered, not really having any better way to describe it.

Levina followed after her brother, and brushed against Latios's other side soothingly, pressing the young dragon between the two's larger bodies in what could be seen as a double hug. "That seemed like more than a spat over what to have for supper, or who sleeps where," Levina said drily.

Latios glared at her. "It's serious!" he snapped back.

Levina laughed throatily. "You're the one who called it a spat, instead of actually explaining what happened."

Latios blinked and then smacked his face into Levina's side when he realized she was right. "She's been trying to befriend too many humans lately and has been too revealing of herself. She got angry when I tried to forbid her from doing that," the dragon explained, his eyes closed and his face still buried against the female Raikou's side.

"You forbid her from making friends?" Blayze gazed at him, eyes almost disappointed. "You do realize she should be allowed to have friends outside of you, right? No child should grow up being forbidden from having friends with those they wish to."

"It was for our safety! I _did_ specify about it. Just about humans. She can have as many Pokémon friends as she wants!" Latios snapped back, rolling his eyes.

"You two live in the middle of a human city you're guardians of. Humans are the most predominant beings in the area. It's natural she'd want some of them as friends. Not all humans are untrustworthy, Latios. She should be allowed to make friends with humans. She's a better judge of character than you are, so she'd know fairly well if a human can be trusted or not," Levina said, her rough voice sounding gentler than usual. She lowered her neck to the Latios and then let her rough feline tongue rasp over his ear once, making the dragon tilt his head and squeal at the affection and the ticklish sensation. "Empaths make extremely good trust detectors, as what they feel goes down to the soul. Sure, she can be untrained and young, but her feelings and heart are true. While you can outwardly fake emotions, it's nearly impossible to actually make yourself feel something you don't." The Raikou pressed her head to Latios' back.

Latios paused slightly, lifting his neck out of the female Raikou's side before floating back a bit, out of the press of the two larger yet gentle beasts. "I don't think I can trust her judgment, even if she's an empath or whatever. Humans aren't generally nice, and their gossip spreads fast. I don't want her around many of them." He narrowed his eyes. "It's too dangerous."

"Didn't Ho-Oh teach you about empathic abilities?" The saber-tooth feline questioned pointedly. "Haven't your own experiences proven Latias' judgment of others well enough? I don't recall a single time where Latias' trusted someone who actually turned out to be not that nice, but I _do_ have memories of her being rather distant and unhappy with some friends _you_ made that turned out to actually be dangerous. Humans may be gossips, but Latias would be able to sense those who are more likely to share her secret, and those who would keep it. She'd be good at sensing those trustworthy enough to make friends with, unlike you," Levina said, her voice firm and unyielding, without a single ounce of doubt in it.

Latios crossed his arms and looked away, grunting. He knew she was right in every single aspect, but was too stubborn to admit it. "Better safe than sorry. And Ho-Oh did tell me the concepts of empathy were hard to grasp for someone not an empath," he replied obstinately.

"So it's better to make your sister cry, make her feel like her brother doesn't trust her, than allow her to make friends with humans who are trustworthy? And all that is because you are too nervous around humans as a general species?" Blayze's words were cutting and sharp, making Latios wince, made worse by the memory of Latias' tears and her voice screaming she hated him still crystal clear in the young Latios's mind. "And let's not forget, you guys aren't helpless hatchlings anymore. Even if you do gather the wrong attention, you have places you can hide. I'm sure Ho-Oh has trained you in stealth. No one can accidentally find their way into the garden. And most of Alto Mare would get extremely angry if they felt their Guardians were in danger, anyways. Hiding behind a large crowd can help."

Latios frowned sadly, rapidly running out of excuses or counters to the two shiny legendary beasts' words and arguments. "Trying to make dozens of human friend at a time is _not_ healthy. There can't be _that _many trustworthy ones." He paused. "Can there be?"

"And was she really trying to make 'dozens' or was she only trying to befriend a couple and your anger and distrust just multiplied the number in your head?" Blayze questioned, gazing at the Latios sharply.

"I'm pretty sure there were a lot!" Latios snapped uncertainly, starting to doubt himself and the strength behind his arguments and anger.

"While a large number isn't good, that I can agree with, you should trust her more. Allow her to make human friends, but instead of demanding anything of her, tell her that you'd wish she'd keep it to a small amount or that she'd follow safety precautions." The shiny Entei's tone was sensible as he continued on. "Little sisters can make life rather difficult, if you're being unreasonable about things."

"Krysta..." Levina chuckled.

"Not just Krysta, Levina." Blayze added, making Levina bump into his side playfully. There was clear affection as Blayze looked at his sister, before turning back to Latios. "Yes, you want to take care of yourself and your sister, I can understand that and feel proud that you're so conscious and watchful for the wellbeing of both of you. But that doesn't mean you can't be reasonable with her. And it doesn't mean you know everything or can take over Latias' personal life. Like you said yourself, it's hard for non-empaths to understand the knowledge empaths can gain naturally. But Latias has never gone wrong before trusting her empathic abilities. Trust your sister, Latios, like she's been willing to trust you her entire life."

Latios sighed and looked down, drawing his gaze away from the two beasts while remaining silent and thoughtful. They were completely right and he knew it, he was left with no option but to accept his mistakes.

Elsewhere, in a hidden alley in the city…

Latias sobbed into the deep blue mane of the shiny Suicune. "Why can't he just believe in me for once!?" she wailed, her crying slightly muffled by the Suicune's mane.

Krysta smiled softly at Latias as she sat down. She used her two tails to gently grab Latias and hold her up while she swung her head forward, making her mane come around and extend along her front legs. She lowered Latias onto it and then wrapped her front legs around her in a hug, pressing her large head to the crying dragoness. "Shhhh, Latias..." Krysta said softly, nuzzling Latias comfortingly. "I know that what your brother said and tried to do wasn't very nice, but you have to try and reason with him. Tell him he's wrong and make your point."

"He's impossible to reason with. He's too Grumpig-headed. Only thinks his way is right, unless some adult tells him otherwise. He never listens to me! He just gives orders and expects to be obeyed!" Latias yelled angrily.

Krysta nodded. "I know he can be like that. Blayze used to be like that when I was younger. Sometimes, it caused us to clash a lot. However, instead of screaming at him, you should try to reach an understanding with him. He's your brother and you love him as much as he loves you, it shouldn't take long to get through to him," she said, smiling gently at the Eon Dragoness.

"I've _tried_ reasoning with him before, and it never works!" Latias shouted at her, moving away and throwing her claws up in the air. "I've tried so many different things, and he would never listen to me! Only say he was right and I was wrong and I have to listen to him and blah… blah… blah!"

Krysta frowned, nodding once. She gently pulled Latias back to her mane and legs with her white, ribbon-like tails and then gently used them to clean her tears away. After she was done, she began to speak again. "He was scared for you. He's terrified that you could get hurt by trusting the wrong people." Once she was done speaking, the shiny Suicune began to nuzzle the dragoness' neck, before meeting her eyes with a soft gaze and a comforting smile. "He's being the 'stupid, overprotective, big brother' a lot of brothers can become when they feel the little sister they adore is in danger."

"But they wouldn't have hurt me! I could feel that they wouldn't! And Latios wouldn't listen to me when I told him I could feel they were trustworthy," Latias whined sadly.

Krysta cuddled up with Latias more. "Sometimes it's hard for non-empaths to understand the knowledge empaths can get from their abilities. Maybe, if we talk with Latios again now, after he's had some clarity slammed into his head by my siblings, he'll listen to you."

"He's never listened to me before," Latias said unhappily. "I understand he's smarter and knows more than me, but that doesn't give him a right to not care for my opinion…"

Krysta nodded in agreement. "It doesn't. Well, I'm sure that now it's different. Blayze and Levina have done a lot of talking with him." Krysta smiled at Latias once more. "Talking focused on how he should trust you more. And now, maybe from now on he will listen. He seems kinda depressed now that he's realized how mean he was being. He seems willing to listen and understand now, and hopefully in the future as well."

Latias blinked. "How do you know? You're here…" she said, confused.

"All three of us share a very special bond. The others have been showing me what was going on through it," Krysta answered. The shiny Suicune grinned mischievously and winked to the Eon Dragoness. "And if he doesn't listen in the future, just slap him upside the head and tell him what an idiot he's being. Be stubborn, be strong, and don't back down. Show him you've grown, and that you're able to make decisions for yourself now. That you don't always need him to do everything and judge if everything is safe."

Latias couldn't help but smile and giggle slightly at the idea of smacking Latios. "Do you… do you think he'll really listen now?" She asked softly, anger having drained out and her tears stopped as quickly as they had come. She'd never been one for holding grudges.

Krysta nuzzled and cuddled with her again. "I'm positive. And trust me, being stubborn and occasional smacks? They do wonders! It worked great for Blayze and Levina. Especially Blayze, he's the bossiest one and I have a type advantage over him." This time the little red dragoness wasn't able to hold back her laugh.

A couple of hours passed by the time Krysta and Latias finally came back to the garden, having spent them hanging out and catching up with each other. Latios had been concerned and wanted to go find his sister for several moments, but Levina and Blayze had both convinced him that going and searching for her, being once again overprotective when it was that protectiveness that caused a fight in the first place, would not be a smart thing to do.

"Latias..." Latios said softly as he flew towards her, his eyes seeking her out and seeing the dried tear stains on her cheeks. It hurt horribly, knowing he was the cause of those tears. Racing forward, he enveloped her in a hug and pressed his head against the base of her neck. "I'm sorry. I... I shouldn't have been so judgmental. I should have given you a chance."

Latias swallowed and looked at him. Her arms were down at her sides instead of coming up to wrap around him. "You should have. Latios, you hurt me. You didn't trust me. When I have trusted you… _Always_."

"I know. I know. And I'm sorry about it. I'll do my best to trust your opinions and decisions more, Latias. Let you make your own decisions without interfering so often. You should..." the dragon sighed, not quite believing what he was about to say, but then continued softly. "You should make those human friends, if it makes you happy. But, just, please don't bring them into the garden. If something goes bad, I want the garden to remain completely hidden so we can hide here."

"The people I befriend wouldn't betray us," Latias insisted, frowning at her older brother.

"Latias... please? I know you trust those humans, and I won't stop you from befriending them, but please just allow us to keep the garden a safe, secret place?" Latios asked, smiling softly. He gazed at the Soul Dew. "This is our personal safe haven, to be a secret only for us."

Latias gazed at the Soul Dew, and then met his eyes as he too came to gaze at her, stubborn gold meeting sad red, and then nodded slowly. Her arms finally came up to wrap around him and hug him back. "Okay... I'll keep the garden secret if that makes you feel better."

Latios nodded. "Thanks, Latias. I love you."

"I love you too, Latios," she replied, enjoying that everything was resolved at last.

Several meters away, Krysta, Levina and Blayze watched the sibling's reconciliation with soft smiles on their faces. Their work was done.

"So, wanna play?" Latias suddenly asked, grinning at the startled Latios. "You have to entertain me now for being mean!" she added.

Latios blinked, and chuckled. "Okay," he answered, knowing playing and having fun would be a great way to put the argument behind them. Latias then glanced at the beasts, inviting them to play. None of the three could say no to Latias' angelic face.

Everything slowly became dark and blurry…

…

"Aww, that was sweet," Pikachu said as everyone's minds drifted away from the memory and back to the present.

"Wait, they have names?" Bianca asked, confused. "Why was the shiny Suicune called 'Krysta' instead of Suicune like the previous one?"

"_To be honest, I don't entirely know the full truth. But like I said, these beasts are more recent in history. The Suicune you saw earlier has always existed with Ho-Oh as her trio member or something like that. I assume Krysta, Levina and Blayze got their names so that, in Krysta's case, there weren't two Suicune known as 'Suicune' because that'd be very confusing. They have a distinction now,"_ Latios answered her, smiling. _"Plus, they're pretty names."_

"Okay," Bianca replied, acknowledging his answer.

"It's hard to believe the two of you could have ever had an argument that big...you always seem so close and together," Brock commented, rather surprised by the events he had just witnessed.

"Well, even the best of friends can have bad arguments," Bianca said, glancing at him. "Though, I'm still surprised by this… yet again." She pouted in disappointment. "Just how much have I missed about Latias and Latios due to the annoying language barrier?"

_"Lots,"_ Latias said simply, making Bianca frown. Latias smiled at her sympathetically. _"Don't worry, you won't miss anymore from now on."_

"That was a big fight," Pikachu said, glancing between both twins. "Shocking."

Latios sighed, and looked at his claws before shrugging. _"When you spend every moment of your entire life with someone, tensions can get high. You rarely get a chance to just get away and get all the reasons for fighting out."_

"I can't imagine something like that...Phanpy and I never argue," Larvitar commented, glancing at Phanpy.

"Does that mean there's something wrong with us!?" Phanpy gasped. "Should we be arguing? Quick, Larvitar, let's find something to argue about!" he yelled.

"I can't think of anything," said the worried Larvitar.

"Think harder!" Phanpy shrieked, freaked out.

Pikachu facepalmed. "Guys, there's nothing wrong with you."

Latias smiled at them. _"It's different when you're little kids. And when you haven't had decades of time added up together."_ She giggled at the confused faces the two kids sent her way.

"Just how long _was_ your childhood, anyway?" Pikachu asked. "Your aging is confusing. You're still kids yet are older than all our ages put together."

_"Well... we're still going through it. We're not yet adults or older teenagers. We could be considered older children or preadolescents. Doing the math, if Latias and I were to scale down our rate of growth and age to that of a human's, from what Ho-Oh's told me I'd calculate that we're around... twelve or thirteen?"_ Latios glanced at his sister for confirmation. _"I definitely need to ask Ho-Oh this, I'm unsure. Legendary aging is complicated."_

Latias hummed, trying to do the same calculations Latios did and then shook her head. _"I have no idea. The way we age is soooo complicated, especially next to other Legendary Pokémon."_

Latios grimaced. _"I agree... _too _complicated. For example, remember Silver? The Lugia kid you guys met in Whirl Islands? For some reason, he ages a _lot_ slower than us. If we put his age equivalent to a human's, he'd be around three and a half or four years old. But he's, in actual years, over three thousand."_ He paused, frowning. _"Uh, or was it thirty thousand? I forgot. He _is_ a god... Not sure about us."_

Ash's eyes bulged in shock. "Thirty...thirty thousand..."

"Really!? _That_ little Lugia toddler?" Brock questioned in shock. "But he was so adorable! And innocent, and cute… he can't be that old… That's older than human history, even!"

"I can't even count that high!" Phanpy squeaked.

Pikachu smiled. "Don't worry, Ash can't either." He grinned when Ash glared at him angrily.

"_I was as surprised as you were,"_ Latios said telepathically. _"I've met him and both his parents. Latias hasn't, though. It happened when I needed a really bad hurricane that was gonna hit Alto Mare stopped, so I ventured out of Alto Mare to seek help and they gladly helped me once I ran into them. Silver's awesome. I've seen them a couple times since then."_ Latios chuckled. "_Anyway, we went badly off-topic with this. But yes, despite our apparently perfect relationship, Latias and I have had our occasional problems."_

Latias nodded and glanced at Latios with a mischievous shine in her eyes. "_Like the time Latios lost his favorite stuffed Pokémon plush and blamed it on me."_

There was an awkward pause at that, and then everyone laughed raucously. _"Latias!"_ Latios screeched in horror. _"Don't bring that up!"_

"You had a favorite stuffed Pokémon?" Pikachu asked, wiping a tear off with a paw. "That's priceless. I've got perfect teasing material for the next month now."

Latios blushed in embarrassment. _"It was when I was a kid. Mew made it..." _he admitted in defeat.

Larvitar blinked in confusion. "What's a stuffed Pokémon?" He glanced at Latias and Latios for answer.

"_A stuffed Pokémon, or plush, is basically a soft, cute, cuddly toy modeled after a Pokémon," _Latias answered. Her eyes glowed as she put the image of a random series of popular stuffed Pokémon in Larvitar's mind.

"Ah, cute," Larvitar said, nodding. "I want one!"

Ash sweatdropped, but then paused when he finally realized something the dragon had said. "Wait, Mew made it? You know Mew!?" Ash asked, shocked. "Like… Mew? _The _Mew?"

"_Uh, yeah,"_ Latios answered, laughing slightly at his reaction. _"She's one of our best friends. In fact, our next story is about her."_

"Her? Mew's a she?" Ash questioned, blinking in confusion.

"Uh, I think it was painfully obvious by how her and Mewtwo's argument went," Brock said drily. "But I'm not surprised you didn't know."

"Hey, if you know Mew, do you know Mewtwo as well?" Ash inquired, thinking back to the psychic clone he was friends with.

"_Uh, no. I only know of him due to what you've told us and a couple mind peeks I did on you," _Latios answered. _"But we know Mew _very_ well."_

Latias nodded. _"But instead of telling, why don't we show you?"_ Her eyes began to glow.

"Wait," Larvitar interrupted them, making the two dragons glance at him. "I have an important question."

"_Oh, what is it?"_ Latios asked, his attention completely focused on Larvitar.

The rock-type smirked. "What Pokémon and color was Uncle Latios' stuffed Pokémon?"

Latios blushed in embarrassment. _"That's a secret."_

"_It was a pink Ho-Oh,"_ Latias announced, making an image of it in everyone's minds.

"_Hey!"_ Latios snapped, blushing furiously as everyone burst into laughter. _"Anyway!"_ he roared, making everyone fall quiet, though it was clear he was still the center of the joke._ "The next scene is very important, because it's similar to what Larvitar faced today. Basically, we had the same crisis Larvitar is having now several decades ago, and Mew helped us through it. Enjoy it. And quit thinking of my plush!"_ His eyes glowed, and Latias had to follow afterwards, stifling giggles of amusement.

…

Their minds rapidly focused on the new scene that the dragon twins were projecting to them. Like the previous three scenes, this one began at the Secret Garden of Alto Mare, and once again, the two dragons looked older, but still not quite as big as the present versions of them.

Latias and Latios seemed to be relaxing under the shade of a tree, quietly leaning against each other. Latias looked down and frowned. "Brother?" she asked at last, breaking the silence that had fallen over them. However, her normally bright and cheerful tone came out very depressed and saddened.

Latios blinked and tilted his head, wondering what was wrong with her. It wasn't normal for her to just speak like that randomly. "Yes, Latias?" he replied.

"Earlier today I was going through the city park, and saw many families of humans. Mothers and fathers taking their children with them to have fun, enjoying a picnic, watching Pokémon, playing and doing other kinds of fun stuff…" Latias began, turning to look at him. She paused and sighed in depression. "Why can't we have a family like them?" She questioned. "We've seen lots of families over the years, both humans and Pokémon. And it's always our duty to protect and guard the city, but what did we do to not deserve a family like everyone else?"

Latios sighed, looking down unhappily. He too had always wondered that and he had always disliked it when this topic was brought up, both because it was very painful to talk about and because he didn't have any answer to it. "I don't know, Latias. We've talked about this before. It's been like this since as long as I can remember. I can't say why because I don't know."

"It's not fair!" Latias cried out, startling Latios at her outburst.

The blue Eon Dragon paused, gathering his thoughts. "No, it's not. But..." He frowned. "It's not like we can do much about it. We're powerless against this."

"But why can't we have a family, too?" Latias questioned miserably. "We never did anything wrong… Our father has been dead ever since we were born, and we don't have a clue about our mother… or anyone else."

"I don't know, Latias," Latios answered, having always disliked how utterly answerless this topic left him every single time. He shook his head. He did not want to say 'I don't know' again, but he was sure that he'd have to say it again soon, much to his aggravation. "Latias, you're asking me things I can't answer. I'm not all-knowing, and I'm in the same position as you."

Latias sniffed, closing her eyes and trying to hold back a tear. "Not… fair…" she said slowly, depressed. "I haven't done anything that made me deserve not having parents…"

Latios gently wrapped his arms around her, resting his large wing over her and pulling her in a close, comforting hug. "Sadly, we just… have to live with it." The large Eon Dragon held his crying sibling lovingly and comfortingly, but he too looked weary, his mood very down and negatively touched by the subject. "At least we have each other."

"I know we do, but still, you can't blame me for wanting more…" Latias replied softly, her voice low.

Before Latios could answer, both were startled by a rather loud popping sound followed by a bright pink flash as a small and adorable kitten-like Pokémon with a long tail that ended with a bulbous tip, large feet, and a round head with a short snout and two pointy ears teleported in. "Hey guys!" Mew greeted cheerfully, bursting with love and energy like she always did. "I had lots of nice ideas today! And I was thinking that we could also-" she paused when she saw that Latias was crying softly, and that Latios himself looked sad over something while trying to comfort Latias and immediately flew over to them. "Seems I teleported in on a cloudy day," she commented, even though it was brightly sunny. "Hey, what's going on? What happened? Why are you crying, Sunshine?"

Latios blinked, still surprised by the Mew's appearance. But then, she tended to always teleport in without any kind of warning and at the most random of times. "Hi Mew..." he greeted politely, a bit disheartened due to the topic Latias had brought up, but he did find the psychic legend's arrival very convenient, as she was bound to know answers he didn't, and most importantly, deal with Latias' depression in his place.

Mew looked at Latios, seeing that Latias wasn't giving any useful answers. "What's wrong?" she asked him.

"It's not fair," Latias whispered, anguished. Latios winced at her tone.

Mew blinked once, not understanding what the problem was. She glanced at Latios just as he was opening his mouth to speak. "May I?" she asked. Latios closed his mouth and nodded slightly. Mew's eyes glowed, rapidly reading the last few minutes that had gone by on Latios' mind. She made sure to leave his privacy intact, just checking what she needed to see. Mew sighed when she caught on to the subject. "Oh, Sunshine," she said while frowning. Mew's eyes glowed yet again, this time enveloping her body in a soft pinkish glow. Using her ability to transform and her mastery of life and genetics, she altered her physical appearance and self. She remained exactly identical in looks, but her size had changed rapidly, growing from barely more than one foot tall to at least nine feet tall, tail not included, in mere seconds. Without a moment's pause, she levitated on her back as her very long tail, now thicker than even the twins' necks and effortlessly more than ten feet long, scooped Latias up and dropped her on her chest.

Latias squeaked lightly in surprised at the pink Legendary's sudden action, but definitely appreciated being enveloped in the soft warmness of her body. At their current sizes, Latias fit perfectly in Mew's chest. The Dragoness' tail ended at Mew's hip, while her head rested on Mew's chin. Mew gently kissed Latias' forehead, her head now much larger than Latias'. "You have family, Sunshine. We may not be family by blood, but you have family. You've always had it."

"But we have no mommy and no daddy," Latias said through her soft, quiet crying. Latios looked at them sadly, completely exhausted of things to answer Latias with. He certainly hoped the New Species Pokémon could resolve it.

"No, you don't. I know that and I'm very sorry for it," Mew answered, sparing the Soul Dew a soft, pained glance. "But family doesn't end with parents." The pink Pokémon gently nuzzled the red dragoness as her paws began to gently massage Latias' neck comfortingly. "You have family, though. I consider you like my family. All six legendary beasts see you like family. Ho-Oh sees you like family. We may not be family by blood, but we all love you so much. We all just want to do our best to take care of you and help you. So, in real truth and practice you do have family, _us_."

Latias looked at Mew, her eyes reddened slightly from the light tears, and a sob or two escaping her. "…" she tried to answer, but she couldn't find words to answer with.

"But then why do you guys always leave us alone in here?" Latios questioned, crossing his arms. "And you always strongly rejected our petitions to abandon the city for some time. It's very peaceful. I don't know why it needs guardians to begin with."

"Because we can't stay here as long as we wish, Latios. We see you as often as we can and we always try to be here whenever you need help," Mew answered. "We have tasks just like you two have your own duties as well. Guarding Alto Mare and the Soul Dew has been your task, and we have our own tasks to take care of too. We can't always be here all the time like we wish." She smiled. "But we still make sure that there are plentiful visits from all of us."

Latios frowned at her answer, but like he always did, he accepted it. He knew protecting Alto Mare and the Soul Dew was his lifelong burden. And if Ho-Oh and everyone else tasked him to do it, he'd follow through with it. He didn't want to let his father down.

"I want a mother... and a father... like everyone else does," Latias whispered sadly. Latios flew towards Latias and gently nuzzled her, he too was in a sensible mood, but he knew the one taking it the worst was Latias. He always hated seeing her sad or crying.

It took Mew a fraction of a second to increase her size yet again, surprising Latios by enveloping him too in a hug. "My cuties, not everyone is lucky to have a mother and a father. There are a lot of others out there who only have one parent, as well as many who have none at all like you. As much as I wish every child could be raised by two loving parents, the world doesn't work that way. But... just because your parents aren't here doesn't mean you're not loved, doesn't mean you're alone. You have a lot of others who love you, who would die if that's what it'd take to protect you, who want to do everything in their power to help you guys live happily," Mew said tenderly, giving the two a loving grin.

Latias stared at Mew, touched. "We… really do?" she said slowly. Latios stared at Mew silently.

Mew nodded. "Yes, of course you do. I love you. Ho-Oh loves you. Krysta, Suicune, Entei, Blayze, Levina, and Raikou all love you… We'd tear a continent in half if it was needed to protect you two."

Latias sighed. "Well, they're our friends... not our family…" the red Eon Dragoness objected, though her hollow words lacked strength or determination.

Mew smiled affectionately. "True friends, like us… Are like family. We may not be family by _blood_, but that doesn't mean we're not family. Family doesn't end with blood, Latias. In fact, there are many who consider emotional family a lot closer than blood family. There are instances in which your blood family is the one that brings you harm," Mew explained gently. "I would hope every family is perfect and full of love, but alas, that's not how things are."

Latias cuddled into Mew's chest and arms, appreciating the pink Pokémon's words. "Thanks, Mew… it's just... it's been so hard living here... no parents... I've sometimes found myself thinking of how it could have been, if our father hadn't died and our mother... whatever happened to her, had been with us." Latias let out a weary sigh.

Mew gave them a very weak smile. "Oh, Sunshine, you have no clue how many of us wish this could have been different. How we wish you could have grown up with your parents. But we can't change the past. We can't change what happened. Time should never be altered, for it can bring dangerous consequences. We can only cope with what fate brings us. We can only do our hardest to be here for you." She shook her head. "I'd do anything to give you something better than this. But there are limitations to what even I can do." Mew smiled at Latias, her eyes glowing as she showered Latias with pure love and affection, magnified by Latias' empathy. Latias cuddled into Mew's chest, enjoying the powerful love such a mighty goddess could provide her with. It almost filled that void of parental love she lacked.

Latios lowered his gaze. "What happened? Was it that evil trainer thing that happened many decades ago?" he asked while Latias cuddled into Mew's chest.

Mew nodded. "Yes. It was. However, there's more to that tale than Alto Mare history can tell you. I'm sorry but I can't exactly tell it to you right now. However, I promise that one day you will know everything that happened and the whole truth will be revealed." She smiled tenderly. "All you need to know… is that your father is a hero, and fought with every single bit of strength his body and soul had to save you two. He loves you two dearly."

Latios nodded once. "I never doubted my father," he said softly.

"Mew..." Latias whispered, interrupting Latios and Mew. "Will you and everyone else keep being our family?"

Mew smiled at Latias, kissing her forehead again. "Nothing would ever make us stop, Sunshine."

"Why does she get a cute nickname and I don't?" Latios asked abruptly.

Mew giggled. "I want perfect nicknames. I haven't found the perfect one for you yet, you're difficult. But I will soon," she answered. Latios wasn't entirely sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. "I know Latias is as bright and lovely as sunlight, that's why she's my Sunshine." Mew grinned. "Feeling better, both of you?"

Latios and Latias nodded a few times. "Thanks, Mew," Latias replied, reflecting Mew's grin with a lovely smile of her own.

Mew suddenly began to glow pink and reverted back to her original diminutive size in an instant, making both Eon Dragons have to rapidly activate their levitation so they didn't fall to the grass. "I guess I'll have to save my games for tomorrow," Mew said, pouting cutely.

With everything solved, the scene faded into obscurity…

…

"_That memory is rather special, both because of who was in it and what it meant. As Latios said before we brought it up, we went through something similar to what Larvitar is going through right now… a period of self-doubt and all that. And Mew rapidly pushed that away with her love,"_ Latias explained. _"That's why it was the last and final one."_

"That's lovely," Larvitar said slowly. He glanced at Latias and Latios, eyes filled with affection and tears. "This was my favorite scene. It… it's true… you're all my family, even if not by blood…" Larvitar looked down. "Thanks…"

Latios smiled, and picked Larvitar up in his arms with small assistance of his mental powers, hugging him. _"We'll do our best to raise and care for you in every way we can," _he promised. _"And, we're still going to get your mother back one day. I still have that intention."_

"Thank you…" Larvitar replied slowly, pressing to Latios' chest. Latios gently set Larvitar down in Ash's lap after the embrace, but was careful to psychically support most of the infant's big weight.

"Wait, so, is she _really _the same Mew I met at Mewtwo's island place?" Ash asked, wanting to be certain.

_"Ash, she's the only Mew in existence. She's completely unique, so yes, she was that Mew,"_ Latios answered.

Brock hummed. "Her voice is very pretty, like a cute melody. It sounded adorable in pure Pokéspeech, but actually translated into words that I can understand, it sounded amazing," he commented dreamily.

"That was adorable, she helped you two through a small existential crisis," Bianca remarked. "She's cute, too."

"She seemed extremely close to you two, as you trusted her with something so intimate," Pikachu commented. "I'm surprised she was so serious. She seemed all fun and games last time we saw her."

"_Oh, don't mistake it. She was serious that instance, but she really is all fun and games. I love her for that, she always has fun stuff to do, I think she's more hyperactive than even Latias at her wildest kid times," _Latios commentedtelepathically.

_"Well, yeah, we always had a very special bond with her_," Latias spoke out, smiling softly. _"She's extremely important to us in many ways."_

"So you said she visited as much as Ho-Oh did?" Brock asked curiously. "I forgot. I assume that after Ho-Oh, she'd be the one with the most visits."

Latios let out a small laugh. _"You're wrong on the order. The Legendary Pokémon that visited us the most through our development at Alto Mare wasn't Ho-Oh, it was Mew." _He paused._ "Not because Ho-Oh didn't care though!" _he added quickly in Ho-Oh's defense. _"It's just that Mew has it _much_ easier. After all, she could just teleport to the garden from anywhere while Ho-Oh had to do the more tedious task of actually flying there and sneaking into the garden without being seen by the city. Mew could just be there instantly and directly, no matter where she was previously. So, in terms of raw number of visits, Mew has a big lead over everyone. Plus, she's always given a lot of attention to us." _

Latias grinned at the last part of Latios' explanation. _"And she's very fun. Pretty much every game we ever knew and played was taught to us by her."_

"Wow..." Larvitar murmured quietly in surprise. "That sounds really big..."

_"Yeah,"_ Latias answered, nodding in agreement.

_"Both Ho-Oh and Mew are the most important Legendaries in terms of family importance for us,"_ Latios announced, glancing at Larvitar. _"They both had a big responsibility on them to help Latias and me through our times as orphans,"_ the Eon Dragon explained. _"Ho-Oh did it in a more dedicated and serious manner, of course."_

Latias nodded in agreement, continuing from where Latios had ended. _"Ho-Oh focused a lot on more 'formal' things,"_ Latias began. _"Like teaching us-"_

_"Me, you mean. _You _didn't pay attention at all_," Latios interrupted, smirking teasingly at Latias.

Latias glared at him. _"Fine, teaching _Latios_ about all kinds of stuff. She did occasionally play with us or do recreational things, but that's where Mew took the prize. While she rarely sat down to talk to us and teach us about stuff, she was generally more interested in having fun with us and entertaining us."_

Larvitar nodded. "They're that important, huh?"

Latios smiled. _"Easily. We owe them a lot in terms of our survival from when we were children. As I said earlier, as Latias and I grew up, their visits became less often, but during our first fifty years. Ho-Oh, Mew, and all six beasts together made sure we were okay. They visited us very often. There wasn't a single week in which there wasn't a visit from them. And some of those visits could last days, especially Ho-Oh's."_

"Mew is very interesting," Larvitar commented. "They way she talked to you... the way she immediately started trying to solve your problems... do you two think... she might be your actual mother? She seemed to speak like one."

Latios frowned. _"To be honest, I don't know. I'd think that if she was our mother, she'd tell us about it. Unless she had a good reason or something like that, but I don't know... it seems too Farfetch'd. Mew's very hard to figure out sometimes,"_ the blue dragon responded.

"Mew did some odd stuff there... I didn't know that she could make herself bigger," Ash spoke up, adding yet another question to the twins.

"She looked... weird... so big," Pikachu remarked. "Quite funny actually."

Latias giggled in amusement. _"And that's not even scratching the surface of all the stuff she can do,"_ the dragoness said.

Latios nodded in agreement._ "Mew's got all sorts of crazy powers. Seriously, it's like her powers are infinite. She can surprise us with new powers every day, literally."_

"Oh? Like what?" Brock asked, interested. "When she fought Mewtwo at New Island... all she did was... giggle, play around, and use psychic powers in varying ways... that doesn't seem like a very impressive arsenal."

_"... I could talk all day and I wouldn't finish telling you all I've seen her do_," Latios said flatly. _"It comes with being such an important deity I guess."_

"An important deity?" Bianca asked, curious. "What does that entail?"

Latios took a deep breath, thinking about the pink Legendary. _"I once asked Mew what she was exactly, after one of the many times we saw her incredible powers. She said she was something like 'the mother of all life' and that all life came from her. I don't know the specifics of what that means... but she's said that she has in her body the DNA of every single Pokémon there is, has ever been, and ever will be. She can actually transform herself into anything. She can also edit the genetics and body composition of anything, transform any living being into something completely different... and also alter herself to anything she desires. She's like a master of life. As you saw, she made herself bigger, and she can do much more than that to herself or to others. Mew is really something else."_ Latios smiled. _"And there are many things she hasn't told me. Hopefully one day she can explain to me in bigger detail just what she is and what she can do. Or if we run into her, you guys might actually see it with your own eyes."_

"Whoa..." Everyone said, slowly processing that.

"She didn't do anything like that at New Island..." Brock remarked. "I wonder why?"

_"Beats me, she has a weird mindset, she's very hard to figure out,"_ Latios answered.

"Does she have telepathy?" Brock asked.

"_Yeah, that's basic for any psychic,"_ Latios answered. _"Even if it took us a while to learn it."_

"Huh, then why didn't she use it with us back then?" Ash asked. "It'd have been cool to talk to her!"

"_She probably did it to be more mysterious and cuter for you guys,"_ Latios answered flatly. _"She does that a lot."_

_"Anyway,"_ Latias began, glancing down at Larvitar, and then shifted her gaze towards everyone else. _"That's all we had to share, guys. It's late, we should go to bed. I hope it was to your liking, and that you enjoyed learning more from us."_

"I definitely had fun. It was awesome. I kinda want to see Mew, Ho-Oh and Suicune again, and meet those shiny guys too," Ash commented, smiling joyously.

"I'd just like to meet any of them," Bianca said, humming at the thought of meeting more legendaries than just the two she was friends with.

Brock chuckled. "With our luck, that won't take long."

"Typically, yeah," Pikachu said. "And hopefully that will be in a setting that's not them trying to kill us," he added grimly, shuddering. Brock nodded in agreement once Latias had quick-translated that into the breeder's mind.

Brock and Bianca stood up, heading towards their respective beds. Ash did the same, with Larvitar held in his arms, and walked towards his own bed. "Tonight, you'll sleep with us," Ash announced to his surrogate son as Pikachu and Phanpy hopped onto their trainer's bed. "Gonna be a little crowded, but we'll make it."

Larvitar smiled and nodded happily. He twisted slightly in Ash's arms, glancing at Latios and Latias as they settled themselves on their own bed. "Uncle Latios, Aunt Latias, thanks a lot…" he said, voice filled with appreciation.

"_No problem, kiddo,"_ Latios answered. _"I'm pleased with myself that knowing more of our time as orphans and the difficulties and challenges we faced helped you realize you have a great family. But still, my promise stands." _Determination filled the blue dragon's eyes. _"I will get your mother back."_

Larvitar nodded. "Can I ask one last favor?" he requested.

"_Sure, anything within my power,"_ Latios replied, wondering what else the Larvitar desired.

"Can you play Ho-Oh's song again? I'd like to fall asleep to that, pretty please?" Larvitar pleaded, grinning slightly.

Latios stared at him for a couple seconds before nodding. _"Sure, that's an odd request, but I'll do it. Good night."_

As the lights turned off and everyone settled down for a good night's rest, Latios began to play in everyone's minds the lullabies and songs that Ho-Oh often sang to him and Latias, and with the lovely melodies filling everyone's minds, no one took long to fall asleep.

* * *

><p><strong>Author Notes:<strong> And here it is, finished. I hope you all enjoyed the friendships the twins have had. And yes, the shiny beasts that I've named Levina, Blayze and Krysta are the ones that appear in Movie 13 (Zoroark movie). I hope you enjoyed how I integrated them to the story of Ho-Oh in Johto.

Sheeze, too much crying and comforting in this chapter, I feel bad for writing Latias and Latios crying so much and being sad. :/ Their lives certainly have a lot of depressing hardships.

Anyway, all the Legends mentioned in the chapter will make recurring appearances, so it's not the last time we'll see them, not by a long shot! So, which story was your favorite? Like I said, it was an emotional chapter.

Next chapter will be very action-y, though. We'll get a whooping _three_ Pokémon captures! Until next time!


	13. Shedding Old Lives

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.**

"Speech"

_'Thoughts'_

_"Telepathy" _

**Author Notes:** Chapter 13. Here it is, enjoy! Special thanks to my beta reader **fatescanner** for providing very good feedback and several valuable contributions to the chapter.

**Chapter 13 – Shedding Old Lives**

* * *

><p>The sun had already risen above the horizon, spreading its warm daylight over the vast forest of Petalburg. The arrival of the morning filled the forest with life, as sounds of varying types and natures echoed from all the Pokémon that made their home in the forest.<p>

Ash and his friends had long since departed the Pokémon center after bidding their farewells to the Nurse Joy that had been very kind and hospitable to them over the past days. The group's intended destination was Rustboro City, the place where Ash's next Pokémon challenge resided. However, they weren't the only ones going about in the forest. In a rather small area between the shades of many trees, two humans dressed in white and a feline Pokémon were slowly settling down.

"Mmm, all this looks _so_ delicious! We should definitely consider stopping at Pokémon Centers to eat more often!" Jessie beamed happily, glancing at all the food they had laid out on their outstretched red and white square-themed blanket. Prior to their departure from the Pokémon Center the day before, the two had managed to convince Nurse Joy to let them take some food and general provisions with them until they reached the next city.

"This is the best breakfast we've had in a while," James commented in agreement, eyeing the food containers laid out before them hungrily. He frowned after a couple seconds of thought. "Why didn't we do this before?" he asked curiously, glancing at the other two members of his group for an answer.

"Because we were part of a criminal organization and it was dangerous for us to just run into Pokémon Centers, since they'd call the police as soon as they saw us?" Jessie answered with a rhetorical question. "But now that we've decided to leave Team Rocket and ditch the uniforms, that's over! We can eat in Pokémon Centers because we're technically still trainers. All that's due is a change of clothes now." She glanced at their clothes, which were rather tattered and beaten from the unpleasant happenings of the previous days.

"Especially for James, da clothes change is urgent," Meowth recommended as he examined Jessie and James' ruined uniforms. "We'll get new ones next city," he added. "Times like dis I'm happy I don't need ta wear silly clothes."

James rolled his eyes at the talking normal-type's comments, but nonetheless expressed his own joy. "I'm just glad to put Team Rocket behind me now." Meowth nodded in agreement.

The three hummed softly as they thought of the group decisions they had taken the night before. After the tough experience the formerly villainous group had gone through with Pokémon Hunter Rico and the painfully truthful words Brock had lectured them with, plus a mostly sleepless night contemplating their future along with all the deeds and mischief they had done so far in the past several years, Jessie, James and Meowth realized that it was true. They didn't enjoy the feelings that came about from having Pokémon stolen from their beloved trainers and as a result, the trio had decided to abandon Team Rocket forever and leave the organization behind them, not to mention being criminals in general.

"So, now dat we've left Team Rocket, what are we gonna do now?" Meowth asked, glancing at his two human partners.

"…That's a good question," Jessie admitted, and then pouted slightly when nothing bright occurred to her after several seconds of thought.

"How about deal with all the things abandoning Team Rocket leaves us with?" James suggested. "Like paying off all our debts to Team Rocket so we aren't chased, and find a way to get around the criminal records and similar stuff being part of Team Rocket has left us with?"

"Eh, we'll just think about that later," Jessie said, waving her hand to brush off the topic. "Something's bound to come up soon. My hunger is more important now."

"Let's feast! I'm starving," James agreed eagerly.

"I second dat! Time ta dig in!" Meowth yelled happily as he began to stuff his face with food. Jessie and James mimicked his actions soon after, enjoying the first decent meal they had had in a while.

A few moments later, the bushes to their side began to rustle slightly. The three ex-Team Rocket operatives turned to investigate the source of the rustles, tensing slightly and preparing for anything that might emerge. They relaxed visibly when they noticed a small Pokémon that looked like a green-colored, round cactus with dark green spikes and a small yellow crown on its head hop out of the bush. The Pokémon's eyes lightened up when it saw all the food scattered around Team Rocket's blanket and began to walk forward, letting out joyous chirps.

"Hey! Dat's our food, so get outta here!" Meowth rudely demanded, his claws stretching out of his paws as he took on a menacing stance. The Pokémon, a young female Cacnea, squeaked in fear and backed away, not wanting any aggressive confrontation.

"Meowth! You're scaring it away!" James reprimanded, glaring at the feline Pokémon. "It's just a hungry, defenseless wild Pokémon. Be nicer!" The blue-haired young adult picked up a sandwich and walked to the Cacnea, kneeling beside it gently and in a friendly manner. "Here little buddy, have a bite," he offered kindly.

"Thanks!" Cacnea beamed, gleefully grabbing the sandwich and then took a bite out of it. While it wasn't exactly composed of things she was used to eating, it wasn't that bad at all.

James smiled at the fact the Pokémon seemed to appreciate the meal. "There, eat up," he spoke up nicely.

"James, what are you doing?" Jessie asked with a puzzled look.

"He's bein' a softie as usual," Meowth remarked, rolling his eyes as he took out several bites of his own food.

"Duh, what does it look like I'm doing, Jess?" James answered sarcastically. "We're not bad guys anymore, so we have to try and be nice from now on. I'd expect you two to do the same thing," he said, turning around and shooting a pointed look at Jessie and Meowth.

Jessie sweatdropped at his comment while Meowth face-pawed. "Just because we abandoned Team Rocket doesn't mean we have to feed every poor wild Pokémon we run into. We barely have food to feed ourselves, most of the time!"

"Plus, we've seen trainers dat while not bein' criminals, were worse dan us," Meowth added with skepticism. "So, leavin' Team Rocket doesn't mean we instantly have ta be as good as dem twerps."

James rolled his eyes at his partners' opinion, but admitted he didn't expect anything else from them. "Alright, we'll stop stealing, and we can try to be nicer. Though I guess you do have a point." He paused and glanced as the Cacnea finished eating the sandwich. "But, this little Cacnea is so adorable!" He picked her up, being careful to avoid her thorny spikes.

"Cute? That thing looks like a torture device in green paint," Jessie said flatly. Her comment earned her a glare from the Cactus Pokémon.

"Don't say that," James reprimanded her. He smiled at the Cacnea and lifted her up slightly. "Don't listen to those two, they're just being mean."

The Cacnea smiled back at James. "You're nice," she stated, slowly developing a liking to the blue-haired human.

"What did it say?" James asked, glancing at Meowth for a translation.

"_She_ says you're nice. And dat's corny if ya ask me, I've heard better come-on lines from a Trubbish," Meowth said, translating the Cacnea's speech, snickering loudly at the end.

"She? Oh," James muttered, although his words went unheard as the Cacnea turned her attention towards Meowth.

"Hey!" the Cactus Pokémon shouted indignantly. "I wasn't _coming on _to him, whatever that means! All I said is that I think he's nice!"

"Yeah, _suuuure_ ya were, lady," Meowth teased sarcastically, before letting loose another fit of loud snickers.

Cacnea growled angrily at the Scratch Cat Pokémon, as unusually pleasing thoughts of jabbing her spiky arms into his rear end accompanied by his subsequent yowls of pain filled her mind.

"Oh, don't mind him, he's certainly one to talk about etiquette when talking to a lady. Remind me, how long ago exactly was it that you last saw Meowzie, Meowth?" James asked, pointedly turning to face Meowth.

Almost immediately, Meowth's mirth seemed to deflate. "Low blow, James," he said glumly, as he turned his eyes towards the ground with a melancholic expression on his face.

"So," began James as he turned back around to face the Cacnea. "As a good gentleman is required to do when meeting a lady, allow me to introduce myself. My name is James, very pleased to meet you, milady," he said with a courteous smile on his face.

"You do know you're introducing yourself to a wild _Pokémon_ and not a human, right? Why the fancy talk all of a sudden?" asked Jessie as the Cacnea giggled and blushed slightly at James' words. "Did leaving Team Rocket end up screwing your head or something?"

"Well, it was the way I was taught to introduce myself back home," explained James.

"I don't seem to recall you introducing yourself to me that way when we first met," Jessie said skeptically.

"He was introducing ta ya and not someone else, you're no lady," Meowth joked, laughing afterwards. His laugher turned to a yelp when Jessie hit him in the head.

"Well, to be fair," James began, causing Jessie and the hurting Meowth to turn his attention to him. "I was trying my best to disassociate myself from those courtesies ever since I ran away. I figured it would be a dead giveaway for anyone looking for me if I continued to talk like a noble. However, seeing as we're trying to turn over a new leaf and be good, I figure some of those courtesies will help in making me seem good to other people we meet. Same thing with Pokémon," he elaborated, giving Cacnea a good-natured grin at the end, causing Cacnea to giggle again and smile back.

"Well, that makes good sense, I suppose, but aren't you still worried your family and Jessiebelle are still looking for you?" Jessie asked, a trace of loathing entering her voice as she spoke James' erstwhile fiancée's name.

James, too, shuddered slightly at the mention of her name. "Well," he began after a moment of contemplation. "We are a couple regions away from home. I doubt they'll be looking for me in Hoenn. And besides, it's not like I plan to talk fancy all the time, just the basic courtesies, nothing more than that."

"They're super rich, and have houses everywhere," Jessie pointed out. "They could be living here in Hoenn as we speak."

James winced in horror, seeing as Jessie was potentially right. Suddenly, the young grass-type froze in his hands, making James frown and detach himself from his trail of thoughts about his rich family. "What's wrong?" James asked, tilting his head.

"She looks like she saw a ghost Pokémon," Jessie commented idly, as she returned to eating her food.

"Run!" Cacnea suddenly screeched in terror, frightening everyone slightly as she hopped out of James' arms. "She's gonna kill you, run for your lives!" Without an instant to lose, running as fast as her short, stubby legs would allow, the Cacnea dove into the bushes and disappeared.

The three Team Rocket agents blinked and glanced in the direction the grass-type had left. "What was dat all about?" Meowth asked, confused. "She said somethin' about running for our lives."

"Poor girl," James mumbled, concerned. "We should go after her… or get away. I don't feel comfortable staying here after what she said."

"Huh, did ya guys hear dat?" Meowth whispered. His ears twitched several times. The two humans and feline Pokémon then heard the distinct sound of something big slithering across the grass, followed by an extremely intimidating and menacing hiss.

"Oh, hello there," hissed a dark, feminine voice. "Thanks for serving the meal for me." The three turned around slowly and paled at the sight of a very large snake-like Pokémon slithering her way to them. She was mostly a dull black in color with bright yellow hexagonal markings lining her body and a few blurred violent markings adorning it. Her face was pointed with two sharp, red eyes surrounded by a yellow hexagon and her mouth had two _very_ large, bright red fangs that protruded from her upper jaw. The Pokémon's long tail ended in a very long and sharp red-tipped blade, making it look like it was permanently coated in blood. The Seviper was very large and had a deathly look to her as several scars could be seen on her scales along several segments of her long body, including a very long and distinct double-lined scar running across her right eye, starting at the top of her head and ending around her jaw. The eye seemed okay and functional thus giving her glare a very terrifying impression.

"Wh-what is that?" Jessie stuttered, frightened by the appearance of the Pokémon. "I… I think I remember seeing some of these at Rico's cage…"

"That's a Seviper!" James said, recognizing it instantly.

Seviper glanced at the leftovers of the food containers at the blanket, and reached forward with her tail, picking one up and greedily devoured its contents before casually tossing the empty container aside. "Not the best stuff I've had, but it'll do for now," she commented idly before reaching for a second container.

"Hey, that's our food, stop eating it!" Meowth screeched, glaring at her angrily.

Seviper glanced at him uninterestedly as she gulped down the contents of another food container. "Make me," she said simply once she had finished. She casually tossed the plastic container towards Meowth, hitting his head with it.

"Ow!" Meowth screeched, holding his head with his paws. "Get her!" he yelled.

"No one eats my food like that!" Jessie screamed, grabbing her Pokéball. "Go, Arbok!" she yelled, tossing the red and white sphere forward.

"You too, go Weezing!" James shouted after her, tossing his own Pokéball. Both devices popped open with two bright flashes of white light, releasing their own poison-types.

Seviper glanced at them for several moments and then faked a yawn. "Pathetic," she commented, her gaze reflected her lack of interest in the battle or in the Pokémon sent out against her. Another of Team Rocket's food containers was rapidly emptied by the Fang Snake Pokémon, who greedily consumed its contents.

Jessie growled at the taunting yawn, even if she didn't understand what Seviper had said afterwards. "Arbok, use Poison Sting!" she ordered. Arbok nodded and open his maw, releasing a barrage of bright purple-colored glowing needles towards the other poisonous serpent. Seviper didn't look alarmed at the attack one bit and just lifted her tail, holding her blade in front of her face. The venom-coated Poison Stings bounced harmlessly off the large blade of her tail, the rest that managed to find their mark on other areas of her body didn't seem to have bothered her at all.

"Weezing, tackle it!" James commanded, pointing at the Fang Snake Pokémon. The Poison Gas Pokémon released a mighty battle cry and lunged forward.

Seviper glanced at the incoming Pokémon, slowly slithering backwards and closer to the creek nearby. Once the Weezing came a couple feet within her, the serpent's tail lashed out at lightning speed, coiling around the tubes that united Weezing's two heads and third sphere together. The very powerful muscles in her tail easily pulled the Weezing behind her and then plunged him into the river, and once most of his body was submerged, she tightened her muscles, forcing her victim underwater. Immediately, Weezing started thrashing hard as he tried to break free, terror filling him at the very vivid treat of drowning. "Jessie, do something!" James cried in horror.

"Arbok, use Bite on it!" Jessie yelled desperately. "Quick!"

"Let him go!" Arbok demanded, lunging at Seviper while his fangs began to glow white and lengthened.

"Okay," Seviper responded flatly. Using her powerful tail, she pulled Weezing out of the water and then swung him forward like a round battering ram. Before the Poison Gas Pokémon could breathe with relief, a splitting pain rattled through his body as Seviper smashed him into the incoming Arbok. Both poison-types screeched in pain at the collision Seviper had caused and were sent tumbling into a tree on the side. They crashed on it, shaking its leaves and making a couple branches fall off. "Eh," was Seviper's only comment about the battle as she slithered back to the blanket, eyeing the food avariciously.

Jessie growled angrily when she saw both of their main Pokémon be taken out rather effortlessly. "Meowth, do something!" she ordered, using her foot to lightly kick Meowth in front of Seviper. "Use Fury Swipes or Scratch attack or anything!"

"Hey!" Meowth yelled in annoyance at being kicked, but then froze in sheer terror when he saw he had landed a few inches in front of the rather powerful and mean Seviper.

The Scratch Cat Pokémon shivered in fear, knowing he was absolutely no match for Seviper if she had dealt with Arbok and Weezing so easily, defeating both of them with just her physical strength and not needing to use an actual attack at all. Seviper stared at him sadistically, waiting for him to make a move. "Well, are you going to whimper all day long or are you gonna fight, kitty?" Seviper asked impatiently.

"Uh, h-how 'bout we t-t-talk dis out so no o-one is h-hurt?" Meowth suggested hopefully while doing his best to not stutter too much, putting his paws together while making a nice smiling face, temporarily suppressing the fear trembles. Now he understood why Cacnea had fled in fear at the arrival of the Seviper. It was clear that the Fang Snake Pokémon was a very recognized and feared Pokémon in the local woods due to her foul attitude and sheer strength.

"No," Seviper answered flatly. She moved her tail forward and then began raising her blade above Meowth menacingly.

Meowth screeched in fear and ducked, putting his paws over his head. "Don't kill me! I'm a special Pokémon… uh, I can talk human! I surrender! Please don't hurt me!" He begged pathetically. He closed his eyes, shaking with helplessness while waiting the inevitable pain to come from his attacker's toxic-imbued blade. Several long seconds passed and nothing happened, the agonizing pain never came. He slowly opened one eye and saw Seviper slithering past him. "Huh?" he muttered, confused.

"You're definitely not worth the little effort it takes me to swing my tail to hit you. At least the others tried to defend themselves. You are pathetic, kitty," Seviper hissed coldly as she passed by, answering the Scratch Cat Pokémon's doubts. As she passed by her supposed victim, she let the long, sharp blade of her tail brush the Meowth's cheek, making him shiver at the faint sensation and the undertone meaning of what she could have done to him if she wanted to. "Stay safe, coward," she added.

Meowth released the breath he didn't know he had been holding once Seviper's blade was away from him. He winced at her words, but as much as it pained him, he knew it was true and that as a fighter he was completely hopeless. "Ugh," he said in discomfort at the harsh truth, however, he was glad the stroking gesture with her tail hadn't cut him. It had just been a gentle pass. Now was not a good time to be poisoned.

Jessie and James stared wordlessly at Meowth's pitiful performance. "That... was bad," Jessie commented. "It was almost depressing. Well, it's not like we could have expected anything else from Meowth, I guess."

"So, what do we do now?" James questioned urgently as Seviper slithered closer and closer each second. "It already took out all our Pokémon." He glanced up, seeing Weezing and Arbok still struggling to recover, and Meowth didn't look like he was willing to even be within a dozen feet of the black, bladed-tail snake.

Seviper hissed angrily, making the two former thieves jump back. "I'm a she, not an it, you stupid humans." She glared at the two. "Move away before I move you myself. I'm hungry and your food is mine."

"Uh, what did it say?" Jessie asked, confused. "It certainly didn't sound happy one bit." Seviper rolled her eyes and cursed human's natural stupidity under her breath.

"I don't know. I don't talk Pokémon," James answered. His face lit up when he remembered something important. "And we _do_ have one Pokémon left, your Wobbuffet!"

"Right!" Jessie exclaimed, remembering the Patient Pokémon. She reached to where she had his Pokéball and pulled it out. However, before she could even release her Pokémon, Seviper was already on her.

The bladed snake's tail lashed forward, slapping the Pokéball away from Jessie's hand in a very swift motion and before the human could react, the large blade on the tail pressed to her neck threateningly. Jessie froze at the sensation of the very sharp tail-blade on her. It was like her breath had all caught up in her throat. "I'm not in the mood to deal with more weaklings. So just leave already before I lose my patience for _real_." The poison-type's tone was very intimidating and threatening. Seviper waited for them to react or give any response for several seconds, but then hissed in annoyance when the two humans didn't move and just stood there, frozen in place. "Ugh, why must humans be so stupid that they don't understand simple speech?" she questioned drily.

The bushes beside them rustled several times, making Seviper glance at them. Suddenly, a round, green-colored Pokémon jumped out of them, flying through the air several feet off the ground from the mighty leap. The Cacnea, the very same one that James had kindly offered food to her earlier, gave an impressive battle cry as she lunged at Seviper, rearing one spiky arm backwards as it began to glow brightly in a green-colored veil of natural energy. Cacnea was nervous to attack the infamous Seviper head on as she had originally thought about leaving and staying out of her path. After seeing this nice group of humans and Pokémon in clear danger, she decided it was worth it trying to defend them from the devilish female marauder of the forest. "Take this!" she yelled mightily, throwing her Needle Arm attack forward, taking aim directly towards Seviper's head.

Seviper didn't look the least bit alarmed at the sudden ambush aimed at her. The Fang Snake Pokémon's tail quickly moved to intercept the grass-type, having left Jessie's neck without harming her. Instead of hitting the Cactus Pokémon directly, Seviper dipped the tail underneath Cacnea. Seviper smirked, and then tossed her tail upwards with a lot of strength, using it like a catapult to hurl Cacnea upwards. "Bye!" she called out mockingly as Cacnea screamed, soaring through the air like a cannon ball.

A splash was heard as Cacnea landed in the river. Jessie and James took the opportunity of Seviper being distracted in her dealing with Cacnea to get to a safe distance. They both ran to the side, with Jessie heading towards her discarded Pokéball. "No," James told her once he noticed she was getting ready to release the psychic-type. "We kinda lost this one. Seviper's beat us."

Jessie growled in indignation as Seviper resumed eating all their food greedily. "That little…" muttered in indignation at their defeat.

The sound of desperate pleas and wild splashing got James' attention, as he saw Cacnea struggling to remain afloat while flailing her arms wildly on the river's surface. James' eyes widened at the sight. "Cacnea can't swim…" he muttered in realization. "Hold on, Cacnea!" he yelled encouragingly as he ran towards the creek, rushing into the water and helping the diminutive Pokémon out.

"Thanks," Cacnea said gratefully as James carried her out of the creek, relieved. She relaxed visibly and pressed to the nice human's chest, glad to no longer be in threat of drowning.

"Ow! Careful, I'm hurt there," James told her, wincing as the pressing of Cacnea made the wound he had sustained from Rico's Absol sting. Cacnea immediately pulled back slightly, glancing up at James with an apologetic look in her eyes. James smiled in response. "It's okay, you're really nice."

Seviper hummed in satisfaction once she was done eating all of Team Rocket's leftover food, and glanced around. She frowned, still feeling somewhat hungry. "Oh well, might as well find some more food to pillage," she said to no one in particular. She slithered out of the clearing, her forked tongue slipping out of her mouth every few seconds to scent the air for more potential victims.

Meowth sighed sadly as he watched their ruined picnic in disdain. "Aw, da first time we get a complete meal for free and dis happens… we got rotten luck…" he commented sadly, on the verge of breaking out in tears.

"I guess this is further proof to us how bad it feels to be mugged..." James mentioned cheerlessly. "I regret being a criminal now..."

"What do we do now?" Jessie asked, looking at everyone around her. Weezing and Arbok had recovered and glared at the direction Seviper had left.

"Let's go and get her!" Arbok said angrily.

"I agree! Let's teach her a lesson!" Weezing bellowed eagerly, echoing the Cobra Pokémon's thoughts.

"What did they say, Meowth?" James questioned, glancing down at the feline Pokémon.

"Dey wanna head for Seviper and get payback, and I kinda agree with dem! She caught us by surprise! Dis time we'll be da ones to attack her!" Meowth said determinately. "No one gets away with stealin' our food!"

Jessie grinned sinisterly, agreeing with her friends all too ready for some payback. "It's time for revenge!" She bellowed mightily.

James smiled down at the Cacnea in his arms and set her down in the middle of the clearing. "You stay here, this will be dangerous."

Cacnea blinked up at him. "Okay?" she responded, not entirely sure if she really wanted to go with them and help defeat Seviper. She knew just how terrifying the Fang Snake Pokémon could be sometimes.

James didn't answer her, and along with Jessie, Meowth and all their Pokémon, headed in the direction that the daring thief that had stolen their lunch had left.

…

Jessie, James and Meowth, along with the rest of their Pokémon rapidly caught up with Seviper, finding her confronting another Pokémon in a different clearing. The clearing was much smaller than the one they had been ambushed at. "Wait, wait," James said, motioning his friends with his arm and bringing them to a halt. He used his arms to indicate them to hide behind some bushes and trees as they watched the scene unfold before them.

"What is that she-devil up to now?" Meowth wondered, eyeing the poison-type terror with a small pang of fear.

"She? That Seviper is female?" Jessie asked, rather surprised at the revelation.

"Yeah," Meowth answered in confirmation. "I forgot to mention."

"First, let's see what she's up to and then we will make a move," James announced, narrowing his eyes. Everyone else nodded at him.

"She's powerful. We need to be careful," Jessie said in agreement, watching the Seviper intently with a piercing glare.

In the clearing, they saw the same Seviper that had badly mugged them earlier confronting a much smaller Pokémon. It was a bipedal, reptilian Pokémon with a vivid green coloration and a dark forest green-colored tail as well as a reddish brown underside. It had yellow eyes with black slit pupils. Its hands and feet had three round digits. The Pokémon also had a small twig in its mouth with a single leaf on it. The Pokémon, a young male Treecko, was sitting down in the shade of a tree while eating some berries he had gathered.

"Those are some really tasty-looking berries you got there," Seviper remarked as she approached, her forked tongue slipping out of her mouth to scent the air. "Good thing that they are mine now. So leave and I won't have to hurt you while I eat them," she warned sharply.

The Treecko snorted, shaking his head as he rose to his feet, tossing the remains of a berry into his mouth and then munching on it while not even looking alarmed at the Seviper's clear threat. "No," he answered simply, much to the Seviper's surprise. "I've heard of you already, Seviper. You are quite infamous around here, but I don't care about that."

Seviper stared at the grass-type, and then laughed raucously in amusement. "Oh, we got a feisty youngster over here!" She cackled in delight. "How nice," she added slowly, her glare reflecting glee. "I love it when they resist. It is more fun that way!" She paused, shaking her head a couple times. "I'm very surprised a little youngster like you has it in him to actually stand up to an adult like me," Seviper sneered, restraining a throaty chuckle.

"I'm surprised an adult like you has to find 'youngsters' like me in order to get a daily meal, you must be so brave if you don't attack Pokémon your own size and age instead," Treecko taunted back, and then smirked at the infuriated look that immediately appeared on the large Seviper's face.

"You're gonna eat those words!" Seviper shouted, lunging forward with her jaws wide open, deadly venom-dripping red fangs ready.

Treecko skillfully jumped over Seviper's offensive maneuver and twisted midair, using a Pound attack to smash his large, thick tail into the back of her head roughly, causing Seviper's head to crash into the grass, making her fangs dig into the grass and dirt deeply. Treecko landed behind her gracefully, smirking at the downed bully. "I didn't eat my words. Instead, you ate dirt," he mocked, a grin tugging at his lips, making his twig twitch slightly. Back in the bushes, the former Team Rocket agents couldn't help but stare in surprise at the skilled display that was put forth by the grass-type.

Seviper slowly undid her fangs from the ground, shaking her head to clear them of all dirt and grass. Without turning around or giving any indication, her bladed tail lashed out at the Treecko behind her in a stabbing motion. She growled in frustration when she heard the distinct sound of a leap, and the fact her tail didn't connect anything. "I have to admit, you're not as helpless as I suspected at first," Seviper commented, slowly turning around. "Not sure if that's good or bad."

Treecko charged at her, running on all fours. "And I can do more than that!" he shouted bravely as he ran at her. His eyes narrowed, focusing on Seviper's main two weapons. It was something easy, as both the large blade on the end of her tail and her large, ominous fangs were a bright shade of red in color, making them easy to track. _'If I can avoid both of them, I can hit her constantly until she decides to abandon this battle and admit defeat. My speed is the key,'_ he thought, knowing that defeating her was going to be anything but easy due to the vast odds stacked against him. Seviper was older, a lot more experienced, clearly bigger and stronger, and on top of that had a decisively big type advantage.

"Unlike the first group of morons I attacked today, I guess I'll actually have to attack you for real. Consider it an honor, you poor kiddo," Seviper warned calmly, eyeing the incoming grass-type judgingly. She opened her maw as an orb of concentrated dark energies in the shape of black and purple rings began to form rapidly, emanating an eerie aura.

Treecko gasped, recognizing the attack. He took a mighty leap using his powerful back legs just as Seviper fired the potent Dark Pulse towards the spot he had just been. A large blast of darkness followed by an explosion echoed in the forest, causing all the leaves on both trees and bushes rustle forcefully for several instants. Treecko glanced at the spot that she had hit from the safety of a high branch of a tree. _'This... is gonna be harder than I thought..._' Treecko admitted._ 'All those stories I heard from locals about how strong Seviper was weren't wrong after all,' _he thought, narrowing his eyes as he watched his opponent carefully.

Seviper stared up at him, a pleased look on her face as she noticed his obviously worried expression. "I'm _way _out of your league, kiddo. Don't try something stupid just for a few berries."

"It's not completely about the berries," Treecko answered, his face changing from worry to defiance in an instant. "I'm good at finding them, seriously, I can just go and gather more in a few minutes."

Seviper blinked, staring at Treecko as if he was dimwitted, which she did think he was. "Then just do that before I kill you."

"No. I'm going to teach you a lesson!" Treecko declared determinately. "I know of you, even though this is the first time I've met you. You're no better than the leader of the Taillow flock that's on the southern part of the woods. You're a bully of the worst possible kind. Someone needs to shove a lesson into your thick skull. Someone needs to show you that you can't just go and steal anything you want to just because you're strong. Someone needs to show you the consequences of it. And I believe I'm good enough to be that someone, on behalf of all those you've terrorized, which includes some members of my former community."

Seviper stared at him for several long instants before exploding into laughter, making the Wood Gecko Pokémon growl in anger at her disrespecting gesture. "That's noble of you, I'll admit." She narrowed her eyes. "However, you're not strong enough to do that. You can't match your sorry Pound and Tackle attacks against my Dark Pulse, or some of my other attacks. You need to go through two evolutions and several years of training to even come close to my level. So, just go and gather more berries." She glanced at the small pile of berries that Treecko had been eating in front of the tree behind her and used her tail to lightly skewer one of the fruits to pick it up. Bringing the berry up to her face, she shoved it in her mouth and ate it greedily. Enjoying the sweet aftertaste of the fruit, she hummed in delight. "You're good at picking the tastiest berries," she complimented, which Treecko didn't exactly appreciate coming from her.

Treecko leaped from the branch he was on, landing on the grass perfectly. "I've trained ever since I left my community. I'm strong, and I definitely can do more than just Tackle and Pound. Like this!" Treecko ran towards Seviper head-on again, taking careful aim as he did so.

"Oh, are you going to super tackle me or something like that?" Seviper questioned sarcastically, rolling her eyes with disinterest. She opened her jaws as the red fangs began to glow an eerie, oozing purple color as she readied a Poison Fang attack.

Treecko took a deep breath and then used Bullet Seed. Massive barrages of seeds coated in a yellow energized light were fired in a very rapid succession towards the Seviper. The poison-type was surprised by the long range attack, and thus was unable to avoid the barrage of small, stinging projectiles that hammered her body. Despite the type resistance, she winced at the very numerous amounts of stings that rang across her entire body. The attack made her lose concentration, cancelling the Poison Fang attack she had been preparing. "Got you!" her attacker exclaimed triumphantly, taking a mighty forward leap and as he did so and he swung his body sideways, making his tail arc towards Seviper's head in another powerful Pound attack.

The deadly serpent released a grunt of pain at the very potent impact, which was strong enough to knock her head sideways. Treecko landed beside her and without wasting a moment, he continued his assault. He knew that if he was going to get an upper hand against the superior opponent, he needed to keep up his offensive without any mercy and remorse. His body generated a glow of intense green as he prepared to use the best attack at his disposal. The green light surrounding Treecko expanded into an emerald-colored vortex of natural energy that surrounded Seviper, but remaining connected to Treecko with a small green thread.

"What!?" Seviper questioned in shock as her vision was bombarded by blinding lime-tinted light, forcing her to close her eyes. She then let out a wince as she felt pain rattle her body, and her power being sucked from her. Treecko grinned, feeling fresh energy pouring into his body from his Mega Drain, which zapped energy from Fang Snake Pokémon and transferred it to him.

The cyclone of green power died down, absorbing itself into Treecko's body, along with the strength it had drained from Seviper. "Still thinking I'm all Tackles and Pounds, Seviper?" Treecko asked tauntingly, his voice brimming with confidence. Seviper shook her head a couple times to regain her senses, and began to quickly recover her composure over the barrage of attacks Treecko had managed to surprise her with.

Back in their hiding spot, Team Rocket couldn't help but stare in awe. "That Pokémon is good," Jessie commented in pure wonder. "What is that again?"

"That's a Treecko," James answered. "And I agree. I've never seen a Pokémon so badass! Look at that twig! He's so cool!"

"And he's also tirin' her out so dat when dey're done we can move in and finish dat she-devil off!" Meowth squealed in delight at the opportunity, even if it was a cowardly strike.

"…Should we feel bad a tiny Treecko is giving her a lot more trouble than all of us did?" Jessie wondered. Everyone winced and didn't answer that comment at all.

Back to the battle, Treecko began yet another attack. He charged at Seviper, once again keeping careful tabs on the movements of her armed head and tail. Seviper's tail began to glow in an eerie amethyst shade of light, as the poison dripping from it seemed to turn itself into vile energy, coating the blade in potent, energized toxins. Seviper swung her Poison Tail attack at Treecko, who skillfully dodged it with an upwards leap. As he landed, he tackled Seviper roughly at her upper neck, pushing her back slightly. Seviper rapidly brought her tail upwards to try and hit the Wood Gecko Pokémon with it, but again the smaller Pokémon proved far too agile for that as before the tail could draw itself anywhere near him he had long since leaped away. "Ugh, stay still!" Seviper hissed in frustration.

"Not so cocky now, are we?" Treecko questioned back, a smirk tugging at his lips, making the twig he permanently held at his lips twitch slightly.

"We'll see about that," Seviper replied, narrowing her eyes as she slowly devised a trap in her mind. It had not escaped her that Treecko always paid very close and special attention to her tail and her fangs. And she knew she could use that against him. Again, her tail began to ooze poison, which began to empower itself into bright energy until it coated her tail in a bright purple glow. "Bring it on, kiddo," she dared, smirking.

"Oh, I will!" Treecko bellowed back, charging at Seviper yet again. He took aim and then fired a barrage of Bullet Seeds aimed directly at Seviper's head. However, the serpent dodged them with a fluid undulating motion of her long body. The Poison Fang Pokémon then swung her tail forward, intent on smashing the Poison Tail attack directly on the grass-type.

Just like Seviper, the Wood Gecko Pokémon made an opportunistic dodge, acrobatically jumping to the side to make his opponent's Poison Tail attack contact the grass without harm to him. Seviper then lunged forward, her mouth wide open and her fangs dripping with poison, going for the spot Treecko had dodged to in an attempt to use his dodge against him. However, the snake had no intention of hitting Treecko. Instead, she made her attack come off a bit to the side, to invite the unknowing Treecko to dodge towards the center.

Treecko's eyes widened when he saw Seviper's wide-open mouth lunge at him, and when he noticed Seviper's attack was a bit off to the side, he moved inwards, dodging the attack easily. "You got to aim better than that!" he taunted.

"You lack experience," Seviper said darkly as she sprung her trap. With Treecko's initial dodge of her Poison Tail and her second feint attack with her mouth, she had put Treecko in a position between her tail and neck, with the rest of her body arching in front of him. Knowing that Treecko would pay attention to her weapons, Seviper had instead decided to use the rest of her body as an improvised offensive asset to catch him by surprise as he would pay less attention to it, and with a lighting fast tightening of her muscles. Seviper coiled inwards, rapidly trapping the young grass-type inside her great coils.

Treecko's gasped as the squeeze seemed to draw all air out of his lungs. "It… it… wa-was a trap!" he stammered, eyes wide in realization. Treecko's mind unconsciously registered the fact that his twig had fallen out of his mouth when he had gasped, and even as he was being squeezed by the Seviper's powerful coils, Treecko made a small mental note to remember to check the area around him after the fight was over. That was, if he was still alive at the end of it.

"Yes, it certainly was," Seviper replied, her mouth curled to a pleased smirk. "I told you I was out of your league. I do admit you're a tough opponent. Much stronger than the previous ones I faced. However, you dared to taunt and make a fool out of me. And you'll pay for that, dearly," she snarled angrily. Slowly, she began to shift on her coils, moving Treecko along her long body, while being sure to keep him tightly pinned.

Seviper restrained Treecko tight with two coils of her body, one binding his legs and another holding his arms above his head tightly, stretching him out so his stomach was exposed to her. "No one taunts me like you did and lives to tell the tale. I'm gonna enjoy this," Seviper said darkly, her voice icy. Slowly, her bladed tail inched closer until she rested it at the grass-type's outstretched body.

Treecko growled defiantly at her, glaring at the blade lying on his stomach. "I'm not done yet!" he exclaimed courageously, struggling against his bonds as best as he could. Seviper chuckled at his defiance, and used the status move Toxic. Slowly, her tail began to secrete thick, oozing, violet-colored venom. She lifted her bladed tail and forced him to watch while her tail danced along his belly tauntingly, slightly cutting it. Just barely drawing drops and lines of blood as she traced his stomach, and once Seviper felt the torturous show was enough, she slowly and agonizingly sank the first inch of her tail into his gut, being sure to do it in a place she was sure wouldn't injure anything important in his body. She didn't want the fun to end just yet. Treecko let out a growling scream of pain, but clenched his eyes shut, refusing to give Seviper the pleasure of his suffering. The blade sank very slowly, an unhurried torturous move that burned with every push into him. The sickly-purple oozing poison of her tail felt like searing heat on contact with his skin and even worse was the feeling of it starting to race through his body, entering into it through the stab. She held the first inch of her tail inside for an agonizingly slow minute before suddenly tearing it out fast and hard. Treecko let out a pained gasp when that happened.

"I told you to just give your berries," Seviper said in a cheerful sing-song tone, which came out very twisted coming from her. She let the grass-type fall down to the grass. "I might just eat you for dessert after your berries," she commented idly, as she slithered away from Treecko and back to the pile of berries. She reached down and took one into her mouth.

"I… am… still…not… done…" Treecko whispered, slowly rising to his knees. He noticed his twig, and reached over to it. He grabbed it with his three-fingered hand and picked it up, swiftly placing it back into his mouth. With all the strength his body had remaining, he rose to his feet. He winced at the enormous pain the action brought to him, one hand coming down to clutch the wound Seviper had inflicted. He felt nauseated and dizzy, as the poison in him began to do its deadly work.

Seviper turned to look at him, very surprised. "You're too stubborn for your own good," she said in shock. "Not sure if you're brave… or just plain stupid."

Treecko rasped a dry chuckle. "A very old Sceptile in my ex-community used to say that there was always just one step between stupidity and bravery," he replied with a small grin. "You injured me, you poisoned me." Treecko winced, but rapidly gathered his strength to keep talking as steadily as he could, without showing any weakness. "But I told you I was gonna teach you a lesson about not being a bully to everyone. I can get rid of the poisoning eating a lot of Pecha Berries."

"If you are strong enough to get one," Seviper said back to the grass-type. "And I highly doubt that. Anyways, you've gained my respect," the Fang Snake Pokémon admitted. "Too bad you won't live much longer to enjoy that. Guess I'll have to break one of your legs so you finally decide to stay down once and for all and let my poison do its work." Seviper turned and began making her way towards the wounded Wood Gecko Pokémon.

Treecko growled rebelliously as he saw Seviper slithering towards him menacingly. However, as hard as he tried to get ready for another of her assaults, his vision began spinning and his head throbbed in sharp pain. His body ached badly, and he could feel the poison searing its way across his diminutive body. He tried to take a wobbly step forward. "You… won't win…" he rasped slowly, his voice growing weaker each passing instant.

"Where did all the bravery go?" Seviper asked tauntingly as she raised her tail above him. With a bright glow, it began to harden to steel-like properties as she used Iron Tail. She took aim for one of his legs. "This will make you stay still. Permanently."

"We gotta do something!" Meowth cried out, pointing at the two battlers. "The Treecko lost!"

"I don't know, I don't wanna receive the same treatment it got…" Jessie murmured, shivering at the coldness the Seviper was capable of. She turned to look at Arbok, who gave her a determined nod. "Alright…"

James growled, glaring at Jessie. "Now's not the time to be afraid, the Treecko needs us!" They came out of their hiding spot, rushing to the Treecko's aid desperately.

However, they were too slow to assist the grass-type. Like a lightning strike, Seviper's tail bolted down. However, a deafening clang of steel against steel was what echoed, not the sound of the tail smashing Treecko's leg. Pikachu clenched his teeth at the effort it took to hold the clash strongly, his own Iron Tail attack stopping Seviper's tail dead in its tracks. His cheeks began to sparkle as he prepared a potent electrical attack. Seviper gasped at the sudden interruption and immediately pulled away, effectively preventing the direct contact electric shock Pikachu had tried to do. "This stops now," the electric-type stated firmly, standing in front of Treecko protectively. "I don't know what the entire of story going on here is, but you're not harming this Treecko anymore."

"Oh, great," Seviper complained in annoyance. "More obstacles," she said cheerlessly.

Treecko panted softly, looking at the yellow back of his unexpected savior. "Th-thanks," he said gratefully.

"What's her problem?" Pikachu asked, his gaze fixed on Seviper as he stood protectively between the two combating Pokémon.

"That she's crazy," Treecko answered flatly, making Pikachu sweatdrop.

"Pikachu!" Ash called out, running out from between a couple trees. "Don't run off like that... huh, what's going on here?" he asked as the rest of his friends came out behind him.

"Obviously some kind of fight," Brock answered, glancing around at the damage clearly evident on the clearing. "Oh, no! That Treecko's injured!" he exclaimed the second his gaze fell on the Wood Gecko Pokémon, he rapidly went to the grass-type's side quickly, crouching down beside him while evaluating the Pokémon's injuries.

Latias frowned at the injury Treecko had, as did the worried Bianca. _"We should take him to the shade, and away from that Seviper,"_ Latias suggested. At Brock's nod, she used her psychic powers to levitate Treecko and move him to a safe distance behind the entire group and towards the shade of a large tree. Brock quickly followed, and Latias too went along with him as she too was very concerned for the wellbeing of the young Pokémon.

Seviper hissed angrily. "Hey! He's mine!" she demanded as she glared down at Pikachu and then lifted her head to glare at the rest of the newcomer group.

Pikachu's cheeks sparkled dangerously with electricity, forcing Seviper's glare to fall down on him again. "Just try to take him from us," he dared, challenging her.

Seviper let out a low growl. The way the Treecko was levitated away meant they were accompanied by a psychic, and while she knew she had several powerful dark-type moves in her arsenal to fight it, that would still mean a very complicated battle. Plus the Pikachu was strong enough to know Iron Tail and match it with her own, indicating he was highly trained and of a very respectable level. "Eh, whatever, you can keep him," Seviper said suddenly, turning around and slithering away casually, her attitude suddenly careless. Whatever she had to gain from fighting them was not worth the effort of the very hard battle they could give, a battle she knew she'd most likely lose.

Pikachu blinked at the Fang Snake Pokémon's sudden decision to abandon the encounter. "Wait, where are you going?" he questioned, confused. "Isn't this the part where we battle and I kick your tail?"

"No, this is the part where I'm going to eat. I'm still hungry," Seviper answered casually. "I don't like to battle if I don't have anything nice to gain from it."

"I'm confused," Ash said, blinking. "Wasn't she gonna battle us?"

"I have no clue what's going on," Bianca added, shaking her head a couple times. "I want to understand Pokéspeech too."

Latios glanced at his sister and Brock, who were tending to Treecko several dozen feet behind them, under the shade of some trees_. "Probably has to do about something between them?"_ Latios wondered. Ash and Bianca shrugged, equally answerless. _"At least she's abandoned her desire to harm him, which is what matters."_

Pikachu growled at Seviper, who was still carelessly leaving. "You still hurt Treecko, though," he stated at her, and only got angrier when she didn't seem to bother paying attention to him and just continued slithering away. "At least I'm gonna make sure you learn it's not okay to just harm others. Let's see how _you_ enjoy taking pain." His cheeks sparkled violently with electricity as he prepared a Thunder attack as a form of retribution for Seviper.

At his actual offensive action, Seviper turned her head to glance at him, and narrowed her eyes in annoyance. She knew she didn't have the speed needed to dodge that attack. However, she could at least make him regret attacking her in the first place. She lifted her tail slightly as it began to glow in a deep blue light, humidity beginning to surround it densely. Just as Pikachu was releasing the powerful Thunder attack, Seviper swung her Aqua Tail-infused bladed tail forward and smashed it into the grass in front of her, while aiming at Pikachu's direction. Immediately after that, a large splash of water followed, soaking Pikachu and his friends.

With all the energy required to successfully execute a Thunder attack already amassed and ready to be released barely a second after Seviper's Aqua Tail had splashed them, there was nothing Pikachu could do to stop it once he had realized the cunning poison-type's defensive maneuver. Seviper, Ash, Bianca and Latios all screamed as Pikachu released the potent bolt of electricity and fried them all as a result. The water generated by Seviper's Aqua tail had acted as a conduct to also shock Pikachu's friends plus the attack's original target. Pikachu winced and stopped the electrical attack as fast as he could. "Sorry! Sorry!" he squeaked at his friends, turning around with an apologetic expression on his face.

"What was that for!?" Ash demanded irately, looming over Pikachu.

"Yeah! Aim at the Seviper, not at us!" Bianca followed, glaring at Pikachu in irritation.

"That was on purpose, wasn't it!?" Latios questioned angrily. "…Well, at least against me."

Pikachu cringed and took a step away from his three angry friends. "I said I was sorry! It was Seviper's fault! You saw her soak you all!"

"Yes, but you didn't try to stop!" Ash snapped back.

"Yeah! You could have cancelled it before shocking us, not after shocking us!" Latios roared, agreeing with his two human companions.

"I swear, I couldn't even if I wanted to! I was all charged up!" Pikachu argued, almost wanting to shrink under the glares.

Seviper chuckled at her handiwork as she slithered away. "That was almost _too_ easy," she muttered under her breath. However, she felt the distinct feeling of exhaustion slowly accumulating on her body. So many conflicts one after the other were starting to take a toll on her, and Pikachu's Thunder had inflicted a very large amount of damage to her. "I'll just eat these berries and find a nice place to nap," she whispered quietly to herself, eyes shining in glee as she arrived at Treecko's abandoned berries. Selfishly, she began to eat them.

"Hey, you!" an annoyingly familiar voice called from behind her, interrupting the Pokémon's snack.

Seviper sighed in exasperation, shaking her head a couple times. "Can't a lady eat in peace!?" she yelled irately at the direction of the newcomers. "Didn't I already deal with you idiots?"

"We never give up!" Meowth screeched determinately.

"Weezing, use Sludge Bomb!" James ordered.

"Arbok, use Poison Sting!" Jessie commanded, pointing at Seviper. Arbok and Weezing both shouted mighty battle cries, spitting a barrage of energized poison needles and a very foul-smelling glob of unsanitary sludge, respectively, towards the Fang Snake Pokémon.

Seviper winced as the attacks hit her head on. Being a poison-type Pokémon herself, like both attacks she had just sustained, the venomous snake was able to shrug them off easily. "This… is pissing me off," she warned darkly.

"Hey! Team Rocket!" Ash called out, glaring at them. "What do you think you're doing!?" he questioned angrily. "I thought you had given up Pokémon thieving already, and now first time we see each other again you're attacking that Seviper!"

"Considering how bad that Seviper clearly is, I'm not sure that's all that bad," Bianca commented offhandedly, making Ash face-palm. "But I do agree on his point, I thought you three had seriously considered abandoned Team Rocket!" she finished, glaring at Team Rocket.

"_We should let them steal Seviper, I'm okay with it, for once,"_ Latios commented in amusement. Pikachu nodded in agreement.

"Ugh, we _did_ leave Team Rocket!" Jessie shouted back, clearly annoyed. "So quit bugging!"

"Shut your yappin' for once, you twerps! We decided to abandon Team Rocket last night!" Meowth added, echoing Jessie's thoughts.

James nodded in conformity with his teammates. "Don't jump to conclusions just because we're battling a wild Pokémon."

Ash blinked. "Oh… " He was completely speechless.

"Wow, I'm surprised," Bianca admitted, raising an eyebrow. "I thought you three were seriously incapable of change."

"If you left Team Rocket, why are you attacking Seviper?" Ash asked curiously, crossing his arms.

"That's because she stole our food!" Jessie replied furiously. "We're getting payback! We're not trying to steal her or anything."

"Plus," James added, his voice calm and reasoning, unlike Jessie or Meowth's. "Even if we left Team Rocket, we're_ still_ trainers. So technically, all of us fighting a wild Pokémon would be something perfectly valid and legal, and not a crime of any sort. We're doing normal Pokémon Trainer activities."

Ash paused, opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it again. "Uh…" he said after a long awkward pause.

"_They do have a point,"_ Latios admitted with a shrug. _"Eh, let them be. They'll handle Seviper. We'll just worry for Treecko,"_ he said, turning around to fly to his sister and Brock.

"So, now that the topic's out of the way, time to get revenge on Seviper!" Jessie announced dramatically, returning her glare to the spot Seviper had been… only to find she was no longer in sight. "Hey! Where is she!?" she questioned angrily. Jessie and James' entire group looked around to see if they could find traces of Seviper.

"She ate the remaining berries and then slithered away while you three were arguing with us," Bianca answered flatly before turning around and heading towards the Eon siblings, not having anything else to say to the former criminals. Pikachu pointed in the direction Seviper had left. After he noticed Team Rocket had followed his pointing, he turned and walked towards Treecko, and soon Ash followed. Jessie and James, along with all their Pokémon, rushed to chase Seviper yet again.

Ash made his way towards the rest of his friends, completely forgetting about Seviper for the time being. "How's Treecko?" the young Pokémon trainer asked as he leaned down besides Brock, his longtime friend. He hoped that the former Pewter City Gym Leader would be able to nurse Treecko back to health, or else they'd have the make awkward return to the Pokémon Center they had just left that morning.

"_I wonder if that's the reason all Nurse Joys say something like 'come back soon' every time we leave a Pokémon Center,"_ Latios commented, earning him a glare from Bianca that he failed to notice.

"Thankfully, he was poisoned very recently," Brock began, ignoring the blue dragon and catching the attention of the entire group. "It wasn't even ten minutes ago, so the poison hasn't had much time to take effect on him. And the wound on his chest didn't hit anything important or vital," Brock answered, applying some antidotes and potions on Treecko's wound, letting them slowly seep into his system and reverse the effects of the poisoning. "So, we can cure him here with common medicines, without needing advanced equipment from a Pokémon Center."

"That's great! I'm happy to hear he'll be fine," Ash said in relief, smiling down at the young grass-type Pokémon.

"_Back,"_ Latias suddenly announced, flying down to the group from over the treetops while carrying several pink berries in her claws.

Bianca blinked in surprise, recalling that she hadn't seen Latias leave at all or even notice that she had been away. "Where did you go?" she asked curiously.

"_Brock sent me to fetch some Pecha Berries. Those berries naturally fight off many kinds of poisons and toxins. So that added to the antidotes will make sure Treecko heals fine and suffers no lasting effects from the poison," _Latias answered, smiling softly at her friend.

"Thanks, Latias," Brock said gratefully. "Now, can you grind them so Treecko can eat them easier? He's still weak."

Latias nodded once. _"Sure." _Her eyes began to glow faintly, levitating the few berries from her claws. With ease, the berries were crushed midair, but, not a single drop of their rich juice fell to the grass as all of it remained firm in Latias' mental hold. Once she had reduced the berries to soft and juicy mush, she used her mental powers to grab a big enough leaf from a nearby tree and then held it in front of Treecko's face, depositing some of the grinded Pecha Berries there. "Eat up," Latias instructed kindly. Treecko slowly struggled to sit up, and then leaned forward to begin eating at the grinded berries the dragoness was offering to him.

"…This is making me hungry," Ash commented idly.

"Ash, you do realize we ate before we left the Pokémon Center this morning," Pikachu said flatly. Ash flushed in embarrassment, while Latias and Latios chuckled in amusement.

Treecko hummed once he was done eating the grinded Pecha Berries offered to him by Latias. "Thanks a lot for saving me, to all of you," he said slowly, genuinely grateful as he glanced at the group surrounding him. "Thanks for driving that Seviper away."

"Hold still," Brock said as he leaned down and started cleaning Treecko's wound in preparation to bandage it and allow it to heal without any complications.

"Why did you fight her in the fight place?" Latios asked curiously, tilting his head as Treecko turned to gaze at him. "She has a type advantage over you and was clearly stronger, not to mention older."

The young grass-type took several long moments to calm his breathing and let his body relax and accept the feeling of the medications slowly beginning to alleviate him, so he could regain his breath and with a clearer head, speak as fluently as he could. "I fought her in an attempt to teach her a lesson that she really had coming. You see, she's a mean gluttonous bully who often steals others' food instead of looking for her own. I fought her to try and teach her that she couldn't just steal food from anyone that crosses her path," Treecko explained, his gaze low. "I honestly thought I could do it. I was confident that I was strong enough to deal with her, but I didn't expect to lose…"

"That makes me think of Taillow," Latias commented, frowning at what she was hearing about the poison-type that they had let go a few minutes ago_. _"Should we go and teach Seviper a lesson too?" she asked, glancing around at the group.

"Nah, let Team Rocket handle her, she's their problem now," Pikachu answered, shrugging. As the talk between the Pokémon was occurring, Latios made sure to translate it entirely in Bianca and Brock's minds, so that the two humans didn't feel left out.

Ash laughed. "I wonder if they'll chase her for two years trying to capture her," he joked, earning a chuckle from most of the group at the mental image the joke provided.

After the group was done sharing their good natured joke, which Treecko didn't understand at all, he continued speaking while being careful to remain still so Brock could patch him up. He could already begin to feel the burning sensation of the poison disappear, leaving just a dull ache. "How is it that you were able to stand up to her so easily? Most trainers that pass through here are _very_ weak… very easy victories for someone like her," Treecko asked curiously, glancing at the group surrounding him.

"We're no beginner trainers," Ash replied, grinning at the proud feeling that statement that brought. "At least for me and Brock, this is our third region traveling together. My name is Ash, by the way. I'm aiming to be the world's best Pokémon Master. The guy tending to you is Brock, who I just mentioned. He wants to be the world's best Pokémon Breeder."

Brock gave Treecko a kind smile in introduction. "Almost done, by the way."

Ash then turned to indicate Bianca standing behind him. "This is Bianca. She's from the island city of Alto Mare. She's traveling with us to see the sights of Hoenn."

"And to draw them, as well. I'm an artist, after all, Ash," Bianca reminded Ash with a small chuckle. "…And recently became a trainer myself."

"Oh, right, sorry, heheheh," Ash laughed embarrassedly.

"It's okay, Ash. Very pleased to meet you too, Treecko," Bianca said kindly.

"Alright, next up, this little yellow guy next to me is my first Pokémon and best buddy, Pikachu," Ash continued, giving Pikachu's head a good rub.

"Hey," said Pikachu by way of greeting.

"And finally, these two over here are the Legendary Pokémon Latias and Latios. They're also from Alto Mare and have traveling with me since the Johto League Championships," Ash said, pointing to the respective twin as he said their name to differentiate them. Latios gave a simple courteous nod towards Treecko, while Latias gave a kind, caring smile.

"Legendary Pokémon?" Treecko said in awe, looking at the two Eon twins. "They really travel with you?"

"Yep, have been for a couple months now," replied Ash with a smile.

'_I've never seen or even heard of a Trainer with a Legendary Pokémon. And he has two traveling with him! He really must be as strong of a trainer as he claims,'_ Treecko thought to himself, staring interestedly at Ash.

Brock smiled as he finished bandaging Treecko up and applying the necessary curing aids to his wound. "There, all done," he informed, pleased with his medical work. "The potion will make the wound heal fast and nicely. Thankfully, while it's a bit deep, it made no serious damage. And the antidotes plus the Pecha berries will help remove all traces of Seviper's poison from you. You're lucky that we were nearby. A couple days of rest and you'll be in acceptable shape."

Treecko gave a slight grin, clearly glad to hear that he would be okay. However, he frowned after the grin had made him notice the distinct lack of a familiar item in his mouth. He ran his hand over his mouth for a second, and immediately stood up. "My twig!" he exclaimed, glancing at the spot Seviper had poisoned him at. He remembered picking it up after she had poisoned him, but didn't remember losing it. He figured he must have dropped it when he was carried away from Seviper.

"Your twig?" Latios asked, confused.

"Yes, my twig," Treecko said drily, slowly walking to the spot he had been poisoned. His steps were a bit shaky and slow, but he felt much better than before. His eyes lit up in delight when he saw the twig lying on the grass. He picked it up and placed the iconic item, at least to him, at the corner of his mouth, where it rightfully belonged.

Latias clapped at the sight. "Hey, you look very awesome like that. Very interesting addition," she commented.

"Huh, he looks cool," Pikachu admitted. "Never knew a twig could make such a nice impression."

"_Hey, perhaps I should try it,"_ Latios said, using his psychic powers to cut a similar twig from a nearby tree. He swiftly placed the twig at the edge of his mouth. _"So, how do I look?"_ he asked excitedly, hoping to entice some positive responses from his group.

Everyone stared blankly at him without a word for several seconds. "I'll admit…" Pikachu paused. "You look bad," he replied sincerely. "Take it off. Only looks cool on Treecko."

Latios growled in irritation_. "It doesn't look bad!"_ he argued.

Latias' eyes glowed, plucking the twig out of her brother's lip, snapped it in half, and then tossed each half a good distance away. "It looks terrible on you. Plus, be original! Don't copy others' methods for awesomeness," Latias scolded.

Treecko stifled a small laugh. He had to admit, not only was this group strong and very nice, as proven by them scaring Seviper away and their caring of him, but also possessed a very friendly and humorous atmosphere to them. "Sorry, twig's my style it seems," Treecko said apologetically to Latios, who rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"Why _do_ you use a twig on your mouth all the time?" Latias asked curiously as she wondered why the object seemed to have such a high value of importance to the grass-type.

Treecko frowned softly, gazing down at the ground. Latias winced at the negative barrage of emotions that immediately radiated off the Wood Gecko Pokémon the instant she had asked her question. "I do it because I look cool with it," Treecko answered simply, suppressing his feelings.

"What's wrong?" Latias asked, grimacing at the negative feelings she had sensed.

"Nothing," Treecko said back, clearly lying. Latias tilted her head, intrigued by the Wood Gecko Pokémon's reaction. However, before she could dig any further into the situation, Latios lightly bumped into her side, drawing her attention. He shook his head once, telling her to drop her questioning on it. Latias pouted, but complied nonetheless. A rather awkward silence filled the group afterwards, which Treecko was sure to end fast. "Thanks a lot for saving me, I'm in your debt," the grass-type said, genuine gratefulness in his voice.

"It's okay, helping others out is what we do best," Ash said. He grinned, as an even better idea crossed his mind. "Hey! How about you join us in our journey?" he asked eagerly. Ever since he had seen a Treecko at Professor Birch's place, he had been interested in catching and raising one.

Treecko blinked in surprise at the trainer's proposal, and then fell silent in deep thought. "Hmm…" the grass-type hummed softly. These humans and Pokémon were clearly a very kind and nice group with amazing friendliness and compassionate interactions between all of them, and they were clearly very positive and chivalrous as proven by their helping of him in his dire hour of need. Treecko took a couple steps away from Ash as everyone watched him intently.

Latias frowned at the saddened emotions she picked up from Treecko. _"Something's clearly wrong with him,"_ Latias said telepathically, being sure to restrain her telepathy so only Latios heard it. _"Should we try to help?"_

"_No, Latias,"_ Latios answered with equal telepathic privacy. _"I don't know what's wrong with him either but it's clear that it's something very personal, if his earlier lie is anything to go by. Ho-Oh's always told me that a mind is a sacred place that we shouldn't invade for little reasons and without permission. You know that already very well. Let Treecko be for now. Once he trusts us more, assuming he joins, we'll learn more when he's ready to tell more,"_ the older dragon said, his voice firm. Latias nodded unhappily but complied with her brother's answer.

Treecko stared wordlessly at the forest all around him. Ever since the very painful incident that ultimately made him decide to abandon his colony on his home-tree's dying days, he knew that he wasn't the same and that this forest was no longer a joy or a home to him. It was only a place of saddening memories. The thoughts of leaving had crossed his mind, but the means had not being presented to him, at least not practical ones. And now, through this nice and friendly trainer and group, the means had been laid out before him neatly. He had a chance to try something different with his life and leave the painful tomb of sad memories that this forest was. Plus, his defeat to Seviper had proved him that he still needed a lot more training to become stronger. There was no argument his best bet to become stronger was indeed traveling with a competitive trainer. And the ones that saved his life seemed the perfect option to go with. Treecko was pleasantly surprised by how excited he felt at the prospect of traveling and seeing many different parts of the world. "I've made my decision," Treecko announced at last, making Ash stare at him eagerly. "I'll go with you."

"Yes!" Ash yelled happily. "I got a Treecko!" he announced cheerfully, startling Treecko slightly.

Bianca and Brock smiled slightly at the childish trainer's antics. "But Ash," the older male interrupted, making Ash pause to stare at him. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you already have six Pokémon on you. Your Team at the moment is Latias, Latios, Pikachu, Larvitar, Phanpy and Pidgeot. You'll have to drop one of them to be able to carry Treecko around. Tough pick, if you ask me."

Ash winced when the painful truth of Brock's statement crashed into him. "Well, I can catch him and have him sent to Professor Oak's for the time being, while I decide how I'm gonna free a space on my team for him," Ash suggested.

"_Best bet apparently, not like we can do any team swapping in the middle of the forest,"_ Latias added.

Treecko blinked. "I'll be sent where?" he asked, confused.

"Don't worry," Pikachu began, patting the taller grass-type's back. "It's a really lovely place. Look for Ash's Bulbasaur, Noctowl or Bayleef. They'll guide you around and take care of you. They're equally nice just like our trainer, so you'll have no worries!"

Ash nodded. "My friends will take care of you in the meantime. Don't worry, I promise that I'll free up a space in my team very soon. I'll find a way, okay?" he asked, as Treecko nodded once. He wasn't entirely sure about being sent elsewhere, but it didn't seem like he had much of a choice.

"Also," Brock began. "Sending him to Oak's for the time being will allow him to finish healing and recover from his wound. It's a good place to rest up at. And, Oak himself can further evaluate Treecko's condition."

Bianca nodded. "Very good thing, then," she commented.

"Yep," Ash nodded, agreeing, as he reached into his backpack and rummaged around inside it for a few seconds as he searched for a spare Pokéball, and he grinned when he finally found it and grabbed it. "You ready?" he asked as he looked down to glance at the grass-type.

"I guess," Treecko answered uncertainly, a hand slowly brushing the bandage over his wound. Ash gently tapped the Pokéball to Treecko's side. The spherical device opened and sucked Treecko inside with a flash of red energy, and the button at the center of the ball beeped for a few times until it fell quiet, signaling that Treecko had been captured successfully. "Yes!" Ash suddenly yelled, startling everyone. "I caught a Treecko!" he announced proudly, posing dramatically while holding Treecko's Pokéball in an outstretched arm.

"_That's getting old,"_ Latios commented in boredom, making Ash glare at him. The Pokéball in Ash's hand beeped several times, making everyone turn their gazes to it. Suddenly, the Pokéball began to glow brightly, and then vanished in an electronically induced teleportation. _"Cool,"_ Latios said, vaguely surprised. _"Those little things can do a lot."_

"But, we got a new friend," Ash reminded him, his voice joyous. "My first Hoenn Pokémon… and I got a very awesome one!"

…

Meanwhile…

Seviper calmly slithered across the forest, her belly was delightfully full and her face reflected a content visage. "Now, time to find a good place to rest up," she suggested in a murmur to herself, glancing around to find a nice place she could spend the rest of the afternoon at and get a good nap. She felt rather tired, having spent most of the day fighting numerous battles against Ash's group, the former Team Rocket group and the tough Treecko. It made the exhaustion pile up on her rather badly, both mentally and physically.

The large poisonous serpent paused for a few instants and then scented the air with her forked tongue several times. "Oh, not them again," Seviper muttered, her face reflected weary annoyance.

"Now!" Jessie's voice suddenly rang through the air. Suddenly, from the branches in the trees high above her, Weezing and Arbok descended at her, both of them letting out loud battle cries as they both attacked.

"Oh, please," Seviper said, rolling her eyes at the attempted surprise attack mounted against her. Seviper's tail began to glow a bright white as she prepared an Iron Tail attack, and then swung it above her in a sideways motion. However, she did it with the flat side of her blade, not intending to cut them just yet.

Weezing bawled in pain as the iron-hardened tail crashed into him, and sent him straight into Arbok, making both of them tumble midair and crash pitifully beside Seviper. "Ugh," both poison-types moaned in pain.

"Seriously, can't you guys call it quits? This is annoying. I've left you alone yet you troupe of clowns don't seem to understand that definition. I'm starting to seriously consider just poisoning all of you to death like I almost did to Treecko." She paused and glanced at the two Pokémon she had just knocked away. "Or in these two's case, by bleeding them to death. _Slowly_," Seviper threatened. From her glare and tone of voice, it indicated that she wasn't kidding.

"We're experts at never quittin' no matter what, you silly garden Ekans!" Meowth yelled at her, coming out from behind a tree that was in front of Seviper, followed by Jessie and James. "A certain Pikachu can vouch for dat. You ate all our good food so we're gettin' payback!"

"And you expect to get payback how? You can't beat me at all," Seviper pointed out, not feeling in any kind of potential danger by the fight brought to her. "And my patience with you guys is running thin. I've been really nice about not poisoning or badly hurting any of you. My goodwill has limits."

Meowth smirked. "You're tired, and you just ate, you're weak!"

Seviper cackled, making Meowth growl at her. "Really?" she asked. "That's all? You think you can triumph because I'm weakened? Please." She shook her head. "You'll need years of training and hard work before that happens."

Jessie, once she saw Arbok had stood up, immediately ordered an attack. "Arbok, use Acid!" she commanded.

"Weezing, follow up with Sludge Bomb!" James called out after her, backing up Jessie's move.

From beside her, both poison-types attacked the strong Seviper directly. Weezing spat a large glob of vile and unsanitary sludge while Arbok ejected large stream of bright green acid. Seviper rapidly turned to face the attackers, her maw opening as a ringed orb of purple and black appeared in it. With a mighty cry, she fired a very powerful Dark Pulse, which easily tore apart Arbok and Weezing's attacks and smashed into them in a powerful blast of darkness. Jessie, James and Meowth were forced to cover their faces with their arms at the potent blast, and when they opened them, saw Arbok and Weezing lying down on the grass, completely unconscious. They were both knocked out.

Jessie growled at the rapid loss their two main Pokémon had suffered, but her face still reflected determination to keep on fighting. Continuing the battle, she grabbed a Pokéball. "Meowth, our plan! Now!"

Meowth nodded. "Right! You're going down, Seviper!" he yelled mightily, his claws extending as he charged head on at the large poisonous snake.

"Oh, so the kitty finally grew a spine?" Seviper taunted, smirking at the Cat Scratch Pokémon's sudden bravado. "This is gonna be fun." Her tail began to glow as she prepared another Iron Tail attack. "Lights out for you, kitty!" she bellowed, swinging her powerful tail forward.

Jessie smirked once Seviper had launched her attack. _'She fell for it!'_ she thought excitedly before tossing Wobbuffet's Pokéball forward. "Use Counter!" she commanded.

Meowth rapidly skidded to a halt using the claws on his feet paws to brace himself with the grass to stop completely just as Wobbuffet materialized right in front of him. Immediately he made a military-style salute and began to glow a bright red, as he used the dreaded counterattack move.

Seviper's eyes widened in surprise, and knowing how dangerous Wobbuffet's counterattacks were, immediately halted her attack. Her powerful muscles tensed, stopping the swing of her tail inches in front of Wobbuffet's face. Calmly, she pulled it back and coiled on herself. "That was an impressive tactic, I admit," she commented. "If I was a bit more careless, I'd have taken a very painful counterattack."

James growled in dismay. "Damn it! She avoided falling for it!" he cried out in frustration.

"No problem, though," Jessie said, pleased. "She can't beat Wobbuffet at all!" She grinned confidently.

Seviper laughed the instant she heard the human's absurd claim. "I have two ways to beat your blob easily, dumb human. I can just use Toxic to poison him until he's knocked out. After all, Counter and Mirror Coat don't block non-attacking moves. Or I can just take advantage of a fatal flaw in Mirror Coat." She opened her maw, and began charging another Dark Pulse.

Jessie smirked, having not understood anything Seviper had said, and so was completely unaware of the snake's intentions. "Wobbuffet, use Mirror Coat!" she yelled. Wobbuffet saluted again, and began to glow a bright purple as he activated the counter-move designed to reflect special attacks.

Seviper tossed her head forward, releasing the ringed beat towards the psychic-type. Jessie, James and Meowth watched in horror as the dark-type attack smashed right through Wobbuffet's Mirror Coat with ease and in a single powerful blast of dark energies, knocked out the blue psychic Pokémon in a single potent strike.

"Wh-what!? That's impossible!" Jessie cried out, shocked, as Wobbuffet collapsed to the grass, his eyes crossed out and completely unconscious.

"…I get it…Mirror Coat is psychic-type attack…so Dark Pulse, a dark-type attack, was immune to being countered…it just completely ate up the the psychic energy making up the Mirror Coat and broke through…oh no," James said in realization, gulping. "That was our best plan to beat her!"

Meowth gulped as Seviper approached him and the downed Wobbuffet. "So, will you continue attacking me, kitty?" Seviper questioned darkly, her voice sinisterly creepy. She already had a good idea what he was going to answer.

"No! I surrender!" Meowth answered cowardly, running behind Jessie and James to hide. The two humans rapidly recalled their defeated Pokémon back to their Pokéballs.

Seviper snorted in amusement. "Thought so. Now, where were we?" she asked before deciding to finish what the intruders had started. She opened her maw and began charging another Dark Pulse, making Jessie, James and Meowth quiver in fear as the savage poison-type prepared to attack them directly.

The bushes behind Seviper rustled slightly, and to the former Team Rocket agents' delight, Cacnea leaped from them yet again. "Leave my friends alone!" she bellowed angrily.

James smiled in delight at their sudden rescuer. "It's Cacnea! She's come to save us! She actually came back for us!" he cheered happily.

"Hooray!" Jessie squealed in equal joy. "She'll be of great use, as we're out of usable Pokémon."

Cacnea roared angrily, the spikes on her arms glowing. She held her arms forward as vivid lashes of bright energy were fired from them in the form of Pin Missile. Seviper closed her maw, cancelling the Dark Pulse, and braced herself for the rain of energized needles that exploded across her body, making her wince. Cacnea smirked as her attack took effect, and then charged at Seviper, preparing a powerful Needle Arm.

Seviper's eyes narrowed, rapidly gauging Cacnea's position through the smoke the Pin Missile blasts that had racked her had generated. And once Cacnea was close enough, Seviper then casually swung her tail while using Iron Tail, using the cover of the smoke to catch Cacnea completely by surprise. Seviper smashed the flat edge of the blade onto the incoming Cacnea so hard she was knocked out on the spot and wasn't aware to feel her harsh crash against a tree on the far side of the poison-type. The Cactus Pokémon slid down the tree bark, coming to a half at the base of it while leaving a large spiky indentation at the place she had collided. "Eh," Seviper offhandedly mused, before glancing again at Jessie, James and Meowth. The three froze in horror at how easily she had dispatched their potential savior. She opened her maw again, resuming he original attack.

Jessie trembled, weighting her options, and with all of their cards exhausted, she decided to use her very last trick. "Wait!" Jessie called out, surprising everyone. Seviper halted her attack out of mere curiosity and glanced at her, wondering what was up with her now. Jessie began to walk towards Seviper.

James gasped. "Wait, no!" He grabbed Jessie's arm.

"Shh, quiet!" Jessie snapped, slapping his arm away.

James recoiled back, and stared at her in surprise. "Have you gone mad? She's gonna kill you!"

"I know what I'm doing, relax," Jessie answered back and then resumed walking towards Seviper. She stopped once she was a couple feet away from the very large serpent. "Hi…uh, I know we started out very roughly, but I want to propose you something," she began.

Seviper stared at her dumbfounded. "What the hell is wrong with you, human?" she questioned impatiently.

"Just continue," Meowth urged Jessie, not entirely sure what she was up to, but made sure to make known to the female human Seviper's obvious impatience.

The red-haired young adult smiled warmly, almost invitingly. "Would you like to join us?" she offered. The entire place became awkwardly silent for several very long seconds.

Seviper stared at Jessie as if she had sprouted an extra head. "…Did I happen to hit your head too hard back there or something?" she asked, her tone rather flabbergasted.

"Are you crazy?" James asked, shocked.

Jessie growled. "I'm being serious!" she snapped towards James, before turning back to the Seviper. "As you've seen, we're trainers. And well, I'd like it if you joined us on whatever journey we decide to be on. You're a very powerful Pokémon, and we'd definitely welcome someone like you to our team. We really need it."

"No," was Seviper's flat response to her proposition.

Meowth rapidly translated. But Jessie smiled, and then revealed her trump card. Having seen the Seviper's attitude all day long, she knew exactly how to convince her. "We'll make sure to give you free food daily if you do so. I'll make sure you always have all you want to eat readily served to you," she offered, hoping it would appease the nasty Pokémon.

Seviper paused. "Oh, now you're talking for real, human," she commented, humming in thought. "Okay, I'll go with you," she answered. She glared at Meowth. "Translate that, kitty."

"She says that she'll come with us," Meowth translated, not entirely sure if he was supposed to be happy or terrified. James' jaw dropped in shock.

Jessie blinked. "Huh… That…was a bit too easy," she commented awkwardly. "I kinda expected to need more arguments to convince you."

"Nah. I've lived in this forest for a very long time and frankly, it has gotten boringly repetitive. I'm kinda curious to learn where I'll end up while traveling with you. Maybe I'll find an even better place. Plus, free food anytime I want? I love that deal," Seviper answered. She patiently waited for Meowth to translate that before continuing. "But, I have a couple conditions first."

After Meowth had translated her last add, Jessie blinked. "Conditions?" she asked, curiously.

"Yes. First, I do want my food when I want it, and fast. I might eat your coward Meowth if you fail at that," Seviper hissed, as a terrified Meowth translated that with heavy stuttering. Once the normal-type Pokémon had calmed, she continued. "Second, never refer to me as 'it' again. I'm proud to be a female, and third…" She growled. "You three_ will_ train hard and try to become stronger. You're all painfully pathetic! At least Treecko and the Pikachu proved to be of a high level and issued a nice challenge. In contrast, you are all so weak that it's almost pitiful. So, you are going to try and make efforts to become stronger. I don't want to be embarrassed to be in such a weak team. If you fail to improve, I'm abandoning you without haste. Oh, and I'll eat Meowth too," Seviper explained, laying down her conditions clearly. "Keep those three conditions in check, and I won't be_ too_ much of a bitch."

Meowth almost fainted, but he complied in translating all of Seviper's words to Jessie and James. Jessie winced. "We'll try, I promise!" She grabbed a Pokéball and held it in front of Seviper. The poison-type rolled her eyes and tapped it with her tail, allowing the ball to suck her inside in a bright white flash. Several instants later, the ball beeped, signaling Seviper had allowed herself to be captured.

"Are you crazy!?" James snapped, glaring at Jessie. "That Seviper is gonna kill us one day!"

"Relax, James. We're no longer Team Rocket. And we still don't know what we're gonna do. But one thing we can start with is trying to become better and stronger trainers. We need to raise powerful Pokémon for that, and Seviper is a very great Pokémon to start with," Jessie said back to him. "Granted, that we get on friendlier terms with her."

"How are we gonna feed her? She's a glutton! You saw how much she eats! We often don't have enough food to feed ourselves!" James pointed out.

"I'm not gonna be one of her meals!" Meowth wailed, terrified.

"Well, now that we don't waste _all _of our resources trying to capture Pikachu, we can actually focus more on ourselves from now on," Jessie answered. "That includes food. We just need to get used to it. And there's Pokémon Centers too."

James sighed, realizing there was no turning back now. "I hope you know what you're doing…" he mumbled as he turned to walk towards Cacnea, who was slowly recovering from her injuries. "Are you okay?" he asked, concerned.

Cacnea nodded slightly, rubbing her head from the splitting headache she felt. "Ugh…"

James smiled and picked her up. "Don't worry, you'll be fine." Cacnea smiled and hugged him. James winced at the immediate pain that brought. The Cactus Pokémon squeaked when she realized she had harmed him and jumped away. James winced for several long seconds as the pangs of soreness faded away. "Don't worry, I'll be fine too," he said to her. "May I ask, why did you come back for us? It was very dangerous."

"Well, because I wanna come with you!" Cacnea answered cheerfully. "You've been very nice, and you saved me from drowning and you're caring. I wanna find out new stuff, and traveling with you guys sounds fun."

James frowned and turned to looked at Meowth. "Translation, please?" he requested. Meowth translated her exact words. "Oh, that's nice!" James said cheerfully. "If you're okay with that, I'm too." He took one of his spare Pokéballs and crouched down. Cacnea happily tapped it and allowed herself to be captured. "Seems I got a new Pokémon friend myself," James commented, feeling happy.

"Not as amazing, powerful and cool as my capture, though," Jessie said teasingly. "Seviper is seriously powerful. She'll help us catch strong Pokémon, and might teach us stuff. Seviper is clearly better."

"At least my capture_ likes_ me and considers me a friend, and won't hold us hostage over food," James snapped back with a grin, making Jessie wince at the smart counter to her tease.

"So, what's next?" Meowth asked curiously.

"I think a change of clothes and figuring out what we're gonna do from now on," Jessie answered. "Let's head to Rustboro. We need new stuff." The other two nodded in agreement. And soon, just like Ash's group, the two humans and feline Pokémon were off to Rustboro City.

* * *

><p><strong>Author Notes:<strong> And with this the chapter comes to a close! How was it? Did you all like Treecko's introduction? What about Seviper and Cacnea?

On some side notes, I know Treecko's introduction and skills were different from the anime, but you've gotten used by now how I like to change stuff. xD Just what is Treecko's back story here? We'll figure it out as the story develops! Also, I know that's not exactly the exact specifications of how Mirror Coat is supposed to work in relation to Dark-types (talking purely of game terms), but I feel it's more logical and works better like this. Games don't always make much sense in anime terms.

After plotting the entire events with Treecko, I finally realized why the Pokémon animators have Ash start every region with just Pikachu. It's a _serious_ pain trying to figure out how to free slots into his team every time he captures a new Pokémon. It took me a while to figure out how to fit Treecko into his team. Anyway, he'll be back _very_ soon! That's once Ash frees one slot on his team, and that happens next Chapter anyway. So Yay! Hope you had fun reading the chapter!


	14. A New Coordinator

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.**

"Speech"

_'Thoughts'_

_"Telepathy" _

**Author Notes:** Chapter 14. A bit delayed, but here it is.

**Chapter 14 – A New Coordinator**

* * *

><p>"We should be arriving to Rustboro Hall in a few minutes," Brock announced to his traveling friends, his apparently perpetually-closed eyes focused on his map of the area they were currently in. "That means we're exiting Petalburg Woods and entering Rustboro City's outskirts now."<p>

"Awesome. That means I'm gonna get my second badge soon," Ash commented eagerly with a grin. "I'll be one badge closer to the Hoenn League then," he added elatedly. He turned to glance at Pikachu. "Isn't that nice, buddy?"

Pikachu nodded once. "Yep, it is. Hey, will I be participating this time around?" he asked curiously. The electric-type hadn't taken part in the team that fought against Norman back at Petalburg City, the lack of action causing him to feel eager for the battle at the next Pokémon Gym.

"Nope," Ash answered immediately, making the Mouse Pokémon moan in disappointment and slump down on his trainer's shoulder in dismay. Latios sent a snide chuckle at him, his gesture making Pikachu sigh softly. "I wanna use Treecko, Larvitar and Phanpy for this battle," the trainer added to his original answer as further explanation of his motives for leaving his most trusted partner out. "The kids have been doing well lately, and I'd like them to get a bit more experience. Also, I need to test Treecko out. It'll be our first battle together."

"Surprisingly, that's actually a very good team selection for this battle," Brock noted, his eyes now fixed on his informative book of the Hoenn League. "The Gym Leader of Rustboro City is a rock-type trainer. Larvitar and Phanpy are ground-types and Treecko is a grass-type. All of them have a good advantage over rock-types."

"_Huh, that's surprising. Was that intentional or by dumb luck?"_ Latios asked in amusement as he glanced at Ash, already expecting the painfully obvious answer.

"I obviously chose my Pokémon very carefully," Ash lied, interlocking his hands behind his head in what he hoped looked like a cool, casual gesture. Needless to say, it didn't work. Nobody believed him for a second.

"Remember to be careful, Ash. You tend to screw up the worst when you have good advantages in battles," Pikachu advised.

Ash paused slightly and sweatdropped. "I'll keep that in mind, Pikachu," he responded aloud at the same time as he thought, _'Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, buddy.'_

"_You know he's right, though,"_ Latios said, taking care to direct his words solely to be heard by Ash.

'_Ack! Hey, I don't need _your_ opinions on the matter, too!'_ Ash thought back in clear irritation.

"_Just saying,"_ replied Latios innocently, although he didn't bother to hide a small mental snicker of amusement at the end. Ash growled, gritting his teeth in annoyance.

"_Though, is Treecko going to be physically fit for battling?"_ Latias asked abruptly, concerned for the grass-type's wellbeing. _"He was injured by Seviper after all," _she pointed out.

"I'm sure Professor Oak will get Treecko the care he needs when he receives him at his lab," Brock answered confidently. "We can ask him about his condition once we get to Rustboro City's Pokémon Center. If he's not ready, Ash will have to select another Pokémon."

"Hopefully me," Pikachu interrupted pointedly. Ash pretended not to pay attention him, and this earned him a glare from the electric-type. This, in return, generated an amused chuckle from Latios again.

"_We'll see, then," _Latias said telepathically, also ignoring Pikachu's interruption._ "I hope Treecko's okay." _She paused for a few seconds before changing topics._ "Anyway, what's Rustboro Hall?"_ the dragoness asked, peeking over Brock's shoulder to glance at the book he was reading. At the time, due to them nearing the city outskirts, which increased the chances of running into other people, both Eon Dragons were invisible.

"It's a Pokémon Contest arena," Brock replied. He read carefully, checking the scheduled contests that the book's information provided. "Huh, there's a contest scheduled for today. It'll be later this afternoon. Maybe we can have a look at it."

"Oh, I'm definitely interested in that." Bianca smiled at the idea, feeling happy and eager at the chance to witness a contest live for the first time in her life.

"_Me too!"_ Latias squealed cheerfully, instantly voicing her excitement on the matter._ "Contests __were awesome on TV! I can't begin to imagine how much cooler they'll be in person!"_

Bianca nodded in agreement. "You got that right, Latias. I wonder what kind of stuff we'll see over there."

"I have no clue what's going on or what a contest is supposed to be," Pikachu stated flatly.

Ash frowned and quickly followed up with, "I don't know either."

Latios chuckled at his companions' lack of knowledge on the topic. _"Like Pokémon, like trainer, it seems," _the dragon joked mentally. Pikachu glared at the dragon again, or rather, at the general direction he thought the dragon was. He then proceeded to fire a powerful Thunderbolt in retaliation from pure annoyance. Latios was a bit surprised the electric-type had gotten the direction right, but without a visual reference for Pikachu to aim at, the dragon had to put little effort in evading the attack. _"Missed me,"_ he taunted, making Pikachu roll his eyes. Latios had a broad understanding of what a contest was, since Latias often made him watch them with her on Bianca's TV back at Alto Mare. Though the dragon admitted it wasn't something that really caught his interest in general, he was glad to do it for his sister.

Several minutes later, the group arrived to the aforementioned landmark. "This must be Rustboro Hall," Brock declared as a very large and impressive dome-shaped building came into view. The domed roof of the structure was painted in a brightly stunning lavender color and had a vivid red and yellow Pokémon contest advertisement banner located in the center of the rounded facade, facing the road that led to it. The rest of the structure was painted with an elegant cream color, with arch-shaped windows and entries lining the outer wall of the arena. The dirt road of the forest came to an end, giving way to a cement corridor coated in stylish red tiles that marked the path towards the arena. The walkway was framed with very neatly trimmed trees and bushes, followed by spectacular steel archways that were covered in well-kept plants and colorful roses.

"Wow, Rustboro Hall is definitely contest material," Bianca commented with awe, raising an eyebrow in surprise at the stunning first impression it provided. "I hope the inside is as impressive as the outside."

"_I'm definitely curious to see this contest," _Latias said telepathically, eyeing all the neat ornaments and designs that were in the hall's courtyard. _"I loved seeing them on TV. They're so pretty!"_

"_Yes, I know you did, considering you made me watch them with you," _Latios grumbled sister giggled softly and nuzzled her brother playfully. Latios smiled and wrapped an arm around his younger sibling's neck, pulling her into a quick hug.

Bianca glanced at Ash and Brock. "Have you two seen contests before or know what they're about?" she asked curiously. She herself had seen many Pokémon Contests herself while living at Alto Mare, as it was a topic that greatly interested her. This was primarily because contests could be interpreted as an artistic-styled competition for both Pokémon and trainers.

Brock nodded slowly. "I've seen many contests before. Most on TV, but some of them live when they were held near Pewter City. Coordinators focus on bringing out the best of a Pokémon to get better appeal in a contest. They raise their Pokémon to be in an attractive physical condition, as well as exceptional health, skill, and style, rather than just pure strength and power. Due to how challenging that can be, they often receive many kinds of advice and services from professional breeders to help them out. In my case, I watched contests to see how others had raised their Pokémon to be the best so I could learn from them. It's a very good activity for an aspiring breeder like myself to learn the tricks of the trade," the former Pewter City gym leader elaborated.

Ash hummed, thinking about his friend's words for several seconds. "I think I _might _have seen one or two announced on TV when I was in Pallet Town, but I don't think I really ever paid much attention to them and changed the channel pretty fast. I've always been super interested in the leagues and battle competitions, you know, stuff that focuses on being the strongest, not about looking pretty like contests. So no, I don't know anything about contests," the young Pokémon trainer answered.

Bianca let out a soft chuckle at the contrasting opinions of her two traveling companions regarding contests, and smiled softly afterwards. It didn't really surprise her. "Well, think we can stay around to watch it?" she requested. "I doubt we'll reach Rustboro City in time to get a battle today anyways, it's almost noon. Plus, if you _really_ want to use Treecko, a good night of recovery would be good for him." She glanced at Ash, waiting for his answer.

Ash frowned, instantly disliking the idea that his much anticipated battle for a second badge couldn't be that day, but knew that Bianca was right on both of her statements. "Sure, I think. I'm not sure I'm interested to see this contest, but I might learn something new, or even see more new Hoenn Region Pokémon. So… umm, yeah… I guess."

Bianca nodded. "It's settled, then."

Latias grinned, enjoying the taken decision. _"I'm happy that we'll watch it. I can't wait to see what kinds of amazing moves and combinations the participants are gonna do."_ She glanced at her brother. _"What about you?" she inquired._

Latios shrugged in an unsure fashion. _"Eh, I'm not really sure, to be honest. Not exactly my real interest,"_ he answered, making Latias pout at him. As the group walked near the large contest arena, they saw several coordinators training and preparing themselves for the upcoming competition. All of them were taking part in activities that ranged from complex things like preparing combinations or moves, to more simple things like grooming or getting their Pokémon ready in terms of looks for the event.

"The competition looks tough," Brock commented as he noticed a very attractive girl grooming a Linoone, whose fur looked strikingly well-kept and tidy.

Ash nodded in response to the older trainer's comment as he glanced around with a smile on his face at all the new Pokémon he could see, occasionally whipping out his Pokédex to acquire more information on Pokémon that he was sure he hadn't encountered before.

"Bianca!" a familiar voice, at least to Bianca, called out to them after they had walked closer to the building. This made the entire group turn to look to the side, where the voice had come from. They noticed a young woman approaching them, walking at a speedy pace to catch up with the group. Behind her, a very beautiful white bug Pokémon with stunningly colorful wings was gliding gracefully after her.

"Hey, who's that Pokémon?" Ash questioned with curiosity as he studied the new creature. He turned his Pokédex, which had previously been displaying information about another coordinator's Pokémon, towards the girl's Pokémon.

The red machine beeped once and displayed the bug-type Pokémon's statistics and information. "Beautifly, the Butterfly Pokémon. Beautifly is the evolved form of Silcoon. When flowers are in bloom, Beautifly fly about in the spring breeze from flower to flower, gathering pollen. "

"Oh, wow, it's so pretty!" Bianca commented, clapping her hands together. "Definitely contest material," she added. Brock was about to comment on how the girl was definitely prettier than the Beautifly in every way possible, but stopped instantly at Latias' mental warning to not embarrass the group in front of her.

The woman stopped when she reached them, sharing a small laugh at her comment. "Thanks a lot. I do my best to keep her in tip-top shape for contests, like the one today."

The Beautifly gave a happy cry as it flew a couple of times around Bianca, glad to have been praised for her beauty. "Thanks!" the bug-type responded happily.

After Latias had translated the Butterfly Pokémon's speech in her mind, Bianca replied, "You're welcome, I meant it." Beautifly stopped in surprise and glanced at the human in confusion, wondering how she had understood her so clearly when no other human could.

"Who is she?" Ash questioned, trading glances between Bianca and at the woman that had greeted them. "You two seem to know each other."

"Not_ too_ much," Bianca admitted. "She's Janet. We met her in Oldale Town when Team Magma attacked the place. She was in the Pokémon Center with us. I don't think you got to interact much with her, but I did."

"Ah," Ash said in realization, vaguely recalling having seen the coordinator around the Pokémon Center that night. Considering he had mostly focused on dealing with the evil group of trainers, he wasn't very sure if he actually met her.

"Yeah, I was there that night," Janet confirmed. "I was running some errands in Oldale Town when those bad guys attacked the place. I'm glad you guys drove them off. It was a scary experience. I considered trying to help out, but I didn't want to risk Beautifly against such a large group of strong and nasty fire-types."

Bianca nodded at her response in acknowledgement. "It's okay. Ash's Pokémon did most of the work. They didn't really need the help. Anyway, you're ready for the contest?" she asked.

"Yep," Janet answered immediately, her voice bolstered with confidence. "Beautifly is ready to get us our third ribbon. We can do it."

Ash blinked in puzzlement. "Ribbon?" he inquired. "What do you mean?"

"Yeah, I meant ribbon, it's what proves a victory at a contest," Janet replied, reaching into a purse hanging from her shoulder to take out a shiny metal case, which she opened to reveal two very elegant ribbons with a golden-colored plate in the center.

"Ribbons are basically the badges of contest competitions, Ash," Bianca explained. "A region schedules a certain amount of contests during a year, during which all coordinators do their best to obtain five of them. Once you get five ribbons, you are cleared to enter the Grand Festival, which is basically the Pokémon League variant of contests," she clarified, using a comparison she knew the young trainer would easily comprehend.

"Ah, I get it now," Ash responded, nodding in understanding at Bianca's lengthy explanation.

"Considering the contest season's just started, you must be really good to have two ribbons already, Janet," Brock commented, every fiber in his body straining to start hitting on her, with his absolute terror of Latias the only thing holding him back. "Congratulations. You're already paving a clear path to the Grand Festival."

"Thanks," Janet said in sincere gratitude, smiling.

"Have you only been using Beautifly to win them?" Brock questioned, his gaze focused on the bug-type as he evaluated her, quickly coming to the conclusion that the Pokémon was in impressive shape.

"Yeah," Janet replied. "I've used Beautifly to win my first two contest ribbons, and hopefully my third one soon enough. But she's not the _only_ Pokémon I have. However, the others still need training and caretaking before being ready for contests. Until they're ready, I'm sticking with Beautifly for the time being," she explained, motioning to her trusted partner with a wave of her hand. "So as you can see, I'm ready." She paused and focused her gaze on the group of trainers in a very observant manner. "What about you guys?"

"We're not participating," Ash replied. "I do have six Pokémon with me, but I don't really have a clue on what to do in a contest, plus style and flashy stuff isn't what I do best. I'm a Gym and League battler. I prefer power and strength."

"I've only got one Pokémon with me at the moment, so I'm not going to participate. And I don't really plan to be a coordinator anyways," Brock answered, shrugging simply. "Plus, the only Pokémon I have with me is a Forretress, definitely not a Pokémon that's good or useful for contests at all."

"Any Pokémon is useful for contests," Janet replied wisely. "I'll admit though, I don't think I've ever seen a Forretress being used in a contest. But just because a Pokémon isn't naturally appealing or pretty doesn't mean it's not good for contests. I know of a particular coordinator that specializes in using unappealing or strange Pokémon in contests. I forgot his name, but he dresses up in a Cacturne suit. He's very good at it, and is a very strong coordinator. I lost two contests against him last year."

"… I'll keep that in mind," Brock murmured, admitting she was right. As a breeder, it was something he had to understand and work with.

Ash blinked, perplexed at the term the conversing Brock and Janet had used. "What's a coordinator?" he asked.

"A coordinator is someone who dedicates to participating in Pokémon Contests, Ash," Bianca answered before turning to look at Janet. "Anyway, I just got my first Pokémon a couple days ago, and while I do like contests and all that, I doubt I can do much. I don't have plans to participate in anything, really."

Janet smiled reassuringly. "I saw your drawings at the Pokémon Center, and you did tell me you're an artist. Why don't you try contests out? It'll be a great activity for you. Art and contests make a good combination," she suggested, her smile broadening. "You might just make a good coordinator."

"No thanks…" Bianca responded firmly. "I just got my first Pokémon. I don't think I'll be good at it. She needs a lot of training and caretaking before being ready for contests. Training I don't know how to do at all yet."

Brock hummed quietly, thinking about Janet's proposal for a few seconds. He found it to be a fantastic idea. Becoming a coordinator would give Bianca a special activity that required Pokémon training to carry out, and most importantly, it would help her have something to do on the journey she was going to take part on in the long term. "I honestly suggest you should try it out, Bianca," the older trainer began, making the artist turn to glance at him. Brock's voice was completely serious, to say the least. "Both Ash and I have our specific Pokémon training goals in our traveling, you're the only one of our group without a real goal in those terms, and you're definitely the one with the biggest interest in contests out of all of us. So, I agree with Janet's proposal. Contests would definitely be a terrific activity that'll help keep you busy during our travels, one that you'll enjoy doing."

"Huh, didn't know that. Well, try it out, Bianca, he's giving you a good reason to do so," Janet encouraged, clapping her hands together. "There are still a couple open spots in today's contest registrations."

Bianca frowned anxiously when she felt everyone's gaze fall on her. When she had departed Alto Mare to go with Ash on his journey, she had just expected to tag along with the sole goal of seeing more than what her hometown had to offer to help her expand her artistic potential, imagination, and experience by traveling and a whole new region that she was a stranger to. She had been very surprised when she had acquired her first Pokémon, Smeargle, out of a seemingly random encounter. Becoming a Pokémon Trainer was not something she had expected at all. And now she was given a formal proposition to participate in an official Pokémon Contest. Bianca felt it was all escalating rather too quickly. "I don't know…" Bianca mumbled quietly, uncharacteristic nervousness suddenly becoming apparent on the normally confident woman.

Latias tapped Bianca's side encouragingly, sensing her friend's doubts through her empathy. _"Try it out, Bianca. We'll all cheer for you,"_ the dragoness said positively.

Bianca sighed, not quite sure what she was getting into with this entire contest proposal that everyone, even her best friend Latias, was dragging her into. "Alright, Janet, Brock… Latias, I'll do it. Just… don't expect me to put on an amazing performance or something. Smeargle and I have zero experience working together," she finally relented, letting them convince her.

"Wait, you mentioned Latias? I forgot, wasn't that Legendary Pokémon yours?" Janet asked, confused. "I don't recall what you said about her, but you did command her against those bad guys back at Oldale Town. And she was strong too, so that doesn't seem like an inexperienced Pokémon. Plus, she was very pretty. She seems like a good Pokémon to start with to me."

Latios snickered under his breath at Janet's comment. He knew Latias was somewhat skilled and determined when she wanted to, but she also possessed minimal experience in actual combat situations and battles. Upon catching his thoughts, Latias glared at her brother and smacked him in the head with her claw, making Latios wince slightly. He returned the gesture with a playful push from a relatively soft tackle. Since the pair of siblings was still cloaked, they remained invisible to the naked human eye, meaning no one caught sight of their small exchange. "No, Latias is Ash's Pokémon, not mine," Bianca clarified as she motioned towards her younger traveling companion. "But she's also my best friend, so she wanted to work with me when the chance was given, but officially she's his Pokémon. I can't use her."

"Oh, right, I had forgotten, sorry," Janet apologized, feeling somewhat disappointed. "She might be an excellent Pokémon for contests. I'd definitely want to see a Latias performing in one. Anyway, come on. We better hurry before registrations are closed." She turned around and made her way towards the entrance to Rustboro Hall. In a deep state of thought, Bianca followed her wordlessly, her friends following suit behind her.

"Are you _really_ sure I should try it out?" the artistic girl asked dubiously after several long moments of lengthy pondering as Janet led the group towards the contest registration area. "I haven't even been a Pokémon Trainer for a week yet… I have no skill on it. I don't have any practice in everything related to it, and haven't trained my Smeargle at all."

"Yes, I think you should try it out," Janet recommended positively. "Like I said, it'd be a great new thing for you to experience. Even your friends back you up on this."

"But, it'll be almost impossible for us to win, we're terribly unprepared for this," Bianca said, crossing her arms.

"Sometimes it's not entirely about the competition and going to win it. It's about having fun and gaining a great experience. You said so yourself, you have zero experience in Pokémon training and doing contests. Well, you have to start _somewhere_ to get experience, right? And this is a perfect place to start," Janet retorted, smiling at the rookie contestant receptively. "Plus, this is a minor contest. So the competition isn't _that _tough, unlike the bigger contests like the ones at Slateport City or Lilycove City. It doesn't matter if you win or not for the time being, right now, it's about the fun and the experience you get from participating."

Bianca groaned, crossing her arms over her chest. "Well, seeing as I'm not sure if I'll really become a full-time coordinator or not after this, I guess I don't really mind if I don't win this contest after all, and if I lose I know I'd deserve it because I'm not ready at all for it, but one thing's not caring about losing and another thing's potentially making a fool out of myself and my Pokémon. We're completely unprepared for this," Bianca elaborated her stance on the issue drily.

"The contest is until afternoon, starts at seven. So you have some time to prepare and train for it. Just a few hours, but it's something," Janet spoke informatively. "You can at least plot a bit."

"Don't worry Bianca, we'll help you as much as we can," Brock encouraged.

Ash pledged his support with a nod. "We did say we'd help you learn to become a good Pokémon trainer when you captured Smeargle."

Bianca smiled appreciatively. "Thanks, guys," she said gratefully.

"We're here. This is where you'll get registered," Janet announced as she opened the doors of Rustboro Hall's main entrance. The group entered the building and arrived at the reception area of the contest arena. It was a well-designed room lined up with elegantly framed pictures of famous coordinators and judges, several couches, and a reception desk, behind which a neatly dressed lady stood silently. Janet moved forward and greeted the receptionist. "Hello, are there any spots left for the contest?" she asked, hoping they weren't too late.

The lady scanned down the registration list to make a quick check. "You're in luck, there's only one spot of the twenty open entries left. But, didn't you register already?" the receptionist questioned, puzzled.

"Yep, I'm already registered, but this one's for a friend of mine. Also, this will be her first contest, so, can she also get a contest pass, please?" Janet requested politely.

"Very well," the reception lady answered, turning to the side and reaching for a portable computer. "Please hand me any valid trainer identification," she requested as she opened the computer and accessed the registration program.

Bianca nodded and reached into her handbag, rummaging through the contents within for a few seconds. She took out the trainer identification the Nurse Joy from the Petalburg Woods Pokémon Center had given to her. "Here," she said as she handed the receptionist her Pokémon Trainer ID.

"Thank you," the reception lady replied curtly as she began to register Bianca as a coordinator. Several minutes later, the lady nodded once and handed Bianca her Pokémon Trainer ID back. "I can't print formal coordinator contest passes, so I'll give you a provisional pass to access this contest. Take that provisional pass and the registration sheet I'm about to give you to Rustboro City's Pokémon Center tomorrow. They'll have your official Pokémon Contest Pass ready," she instructed, handing Bianca the provisional pass. She reached down and grabbed the registration sheet filled with Bianca's data once the printer under her counter had finished printing it, and handed it to the new coordinator as well. "Don't lose any of this," she advised before concluding with, "Have a nice day, and best of luck in your first contest."

"Thanks," Bianca said gratefully as she stored the contest pass, the registration, and her ID into her handbag.

"See? All done for now. The contest starts in about three hours. You have until then to prepare something for it," Janet informed Bianca as she and the entire group turned towards the exit and walked out of the building. "I already have my appeal ready."

Bianca nodded slightly, her mind racing on what she could do with her only Pokémon, Smeargle. "I'll have to think fast…" She frowned at the prospect, since she didn't have a clear idea on where to start.

"What's an appeal?" Ash asked curiously. "How do contests work anyway? All I know is that coordinators try to make their Pokémon flashy."

Janet laughed softly at the young trainer's lack of knowledge once again. "Contests are a lot more complicated than just making a Pokémon flashy. They require many skills to successfully compete in them. Adequately bonding and raising your Pokémon is vital. Contests are in general composed of two phases. The Appeal phase and the Battle phase."

Ash immediately perked up upon hearing the mention of battling. "Oh? They have a battle phrase? I can do that one." He grinned slightly.

"Not really," Brock corrected as he released a slight chuckle, causing Ash to sweatdrop. "A contest battle isn't entirely about defeating or knocking out your opponent's Pokémon. Sure, the one whose Pokémon is knocked out loses, but if you battle solely to knock out your opponents without following the essence of contests, you're automatically disqualified. In fact, many contests battles end without any of the Pokémon getting knocked out."

Ash blinked, completely perplexed. "How can a battle end if both Pokémon are still standing?" he asked before adding, "I mean, attacks are always about the power in them…"

Janet shook her head. "Well, not in contests, no. They aren't like other battles. Here, we train Pokémon to be graceful, and emphasize on the beauty and technique of attacks, not the raw power behind them. Let me explain the first round to start with," she began, holding back a giggle of amusement at the youthful trainer. "The Appeal round is basically where a coordinator displays how elegant, beautiful, well-trained, well-raised, and how skilled and talented their Pokémon are by performing a series of planned and coordinated attacks to form a coherent show. Based on all these elements, the judges will give a score. The coordinators with the highest score will advance to the next round, the battles."

Ash nodded, understanding that information so far. "Okay, I think I get that. So, how does the battle round go? Why wouldn't I do well in a contest battle if I'm good at Pokémon battling?" he inquired.

"The battle rounds are a direct battle competition between the coordinators who make it past the appeal round. The battle, however, isn't about knocking out your opponent's Pokémon. In the battle, each coordinator starts with a fixed number of points and the general objective is to lower the opponent's points to zero through stylish and graceful techniques. All battles have a timer of five minutes. The battle concludes when one of the coordinators run out of points, when the timer runs out, or when a Pokémon is knocked out. When the timer runs out, the coordinator with the highest number of remaining points wins, and if a Pokémon is knocked out, it must be within contest guidelines or else they might face disqualification," Janet explained, drawing a breath after she had finished her lengthy elaboration. "Did I make my explanation clear enough?"

"Ah, I get it," Ash answered, and then scowled slightly. "Certainly sounds a bit tougher than I thought, I don't think I could keep track of all that. I prefer to beat my opponent until his Pokémon are all out, it's simpler and definitely more fun," he added, to which Pikachu nodded in agreement. "Well, at least Bianca's artistic stuff will help her out."

"Yeah, I agree to that last part. Bianca being an artist will certainly add to her chances as a coordinator," Brock responded in agreement.

"Do you think you'll take part in more contests other than just this one?" Janet asked, glancing at Bianca.

"I'm not sure," Bianca replied. "Let me deal with this contest first. I'll base my decision on how I feel doing it." She chuckled slightly, shaking her head a couple of times while closing her eyelids. "It's weird how things change. When I started this journey I thought I was doing it just to travel around, then I became a trainer, and now I have a contest pass."

"If you decide to become a full-fledged coordinator, you know you have our complete support in every way, Bianca. We'll do our best to teach you all we know of how to raise and train Pokémon correctly," Brock proclaimed reassuringly, flashing Bianca a smile.

Bianca responded to the gesture with a smile of her own. "Thanks a lot, guys," she expressed gratefully. Latias and Latios also voiced their support for their human friend telepathically, projecting encouraging smiles in her mind afterwards.

"See? You have wonderful friends, Bianca," Janet complimented optimistically. "They'll help you greatly. Now, I have to go and finish the last touches to my appeal." She smiled. "I'll leave you to practice on your own. Good luck." She offered Bianca a handshake. "Good luck in the contest."

Bianca reached forward and shook Janet's hand. "Likewise."

Janet reacted with a single nod. "See you at the contest later." She turned around and departed from the party.

Once she was sure that her new friend was out of sight, Bianca facepalmed and groaned. This made the entire group glance at her oddly. "Ugh, what did you guys drag me into…?"

"You better get going and begin preparing, Bianca," Brock promptly advised. "You'll need every moment you can get if you want to be as ready as possible for the contest."

Knowing that the Pokémon Breeder was correct, Bianca decided to get some practicing done, even if it wasn't going to be much in the time allotted. "I'll see you guys later then. Hey, Latias, can you come with me?" she queried as she walked forward, causing the rest of her friends to stare at her in confusion. Latias projected a positive reply in her mind.

"I thought we were gonna help out." Ash stared at her with a dumbfounded look. "Right?"

"Yes, but that's in the stuff I'm clueless about, like how to catch more Pokémon or how to raise and train them into a strong team like yours, that's where I'll definitely need all of you guy's help. The actual contest part is up to me. Plus, artists like me think our best in quiet solitude. I want to try and surprise you guys as well. Don't worry, I'll be fine," Bianca answered, turning around and heading into the woods. "Come, Latias. I'll need your help."

Latias nodded and flew after her best friend. _"See you guys later. We'll come up with something to surprise you all. And brother, no peeking!"_ she reprimanded telepathically as she disappeared into the woods.

Latios blinked but then shrugged, knowing that his sister was going to be fine by herself. _"Good luck sis!" _he called out to her psychically, earning a positive reply from her. _"Well, we've got a couple hours to kill while Bianca prepares her contest stuff. What do we do until then?"_

"I'd like to train with Larvitar and Phanpy, so they're prepared for tomorrow's Gym Battle," was Ash's response. He hadn't forgotten about his big day tomorrow, after all. "Plus, Pidgeot, Pikachu, and you could use a nice workout."

"I'm all in if it involves me zapping Latios," Pikachu voiced eagerly, grinning maliciously at where he suspected the dragon was.

"_Uh, I'm over here,"_ Latios taunted, his voice barely holding back a mocking tone as he tapped the electric-type's shoulder from behind. Pikachu sighed in frustration at his awesome moment being ruined.

"Good idea," Brock replied. Coming to the decision to keep up with their training, the remainder of the group moved to a more secluded place where they could train and improve Ash's Pokémon in preparation for the upcoming Gym Battle tomorrow.

…

Somewhere else in the woods that surrounded Rustboro Hall, Bianca was slowly looking around for a decent and quiet place to plan and train for her upcoming contest. Behind her Latias followed without a sound.

Bianca released a soft breath, enjoying the beautiful scenery that the natural environment provided. It was something she came to greatly enjoy while traveling, and not only did she get to see a lot of amazing manmade landmarks, but also a lot of dazzling natural atmospheres. So far, traveling through them had been a really refreshing experience for the artist, as she was accustomed to Alto Mare's oceanic scenes and views. Glancing around as she sought a good place where they could train, Bianca hummed a small tune to herself, catching Latias' attention. _"Trying to distract your mind from the nerves?" _the dragoness inquired curiously.

Bianca paused for a few seconds and frowned, but resumed her walk at a rather speedy pace. "How did you know? I thought I was doing a good job."

Latias giggled in amusement, her eyes shining with playful mirth. _"I'm an empath, remember? I can sense others' feelings around me."_

"Oh, right," Bianca acknowledged. "That can be awkward sometimes, I imagine? Like… when you feel other's anger or maybe more… intimate, personal or private feelings…" she grimaced slightly at the idea. "Can be a very annoying ability, possibly?"

"_It can be annoying sometimes, yes. But I haven't had any embarrassing or painful experiences with it, so far,"_ Latias responded telepathically. _"And I hope it stays that way."_

Bianca glanced around, and she immediately turned when something caught her attention. "Hey, this looks good." After walking a short distance, the duo arrived at a promising destination. "This looks like a nice place to practice," Bianca commented after she entered a small grassy grove framed by thick trees and lush bushes filled with berries. She surveyed her surroundings, nodding to herself with satisfaction. It was still a good distance near Rustboro Hall, but a bit further from where most coordinators picked to train. "Are there any Pokémon nearby? Berries mean some might come close," Bianca asked Latias. She wasn't looking forward to any interruptions that would disrupt her practice session.

The Eon Dragoness' eyes glowed softly for a few seconds. _"Nope, there's nothing nearby that we should worry about. I'll be sure to give you a heads up if any do come close, don't worry,"_ she promised, and then promptly changed the topic to the more worrying situation at hand. _"Think you'll be able to come up with something decent in the few hours we've got before the contest?"_ Latias asked as she levitated alongside her best friend. _"Remember that you can't train all those hours nonstop, because you'd tire Smeargle out and she'd be too worn out to perform in the contest. You need to consider enough training time to get a good grasp of what you plan to do, but make sure that it's not too intense, and afterwards, give Smeargle enough time to rest," _the red dragoness added.

Bianca grunted in dismay again. "I hadn't thought about that at all, and it just reduces my preparation time even more. But thanks, I'll keep your advice in mind, Latias." The artist grabbed a Pokéball from her handbag, and hurled it forward, releasing the Painter Pokémon before both of them in a gleaming flash of light.

"Hi," Smeargle greeted both girls once she had been released from her Pokéball. She glanced around, noticing the surrounding scenario and the absence of the rest of their friends. "What's up?" she asked curiously. "Where's everyone else?"

"_It's a long story,"_ Latias answered, shrugging_. "But, something's up, for sure. Hope you don't mind."_ Smeargle tilted her head at the Eon Pokémon, confused as to what she could mean.

"Well, do you know what a Pokémon Contest is, Smeargle?" Bianca asked, crouching down before the normal-type Pokémon.

Smeargle turned to look at her. "Yeah, I do," she answered, wondering where the sudden mention of Pokémon Contests could lead to. "I saw several classes of them back at the Pokémon Academy. I've never taken part in any, though."

Bianca nodded after Latias had mentally translated all of the Pokémon's speech in her mind. "Well, guess what? I signed myself up for a contest! And as my only Pokémon, you'll have to be the one to participate," Bianca announced, smiling warmly at her timid-mannered Pokémon afterwards.

"Huh…?" Smeargle muttered quietly, not sure what to make out of the new development. However, it did cause some panic to surge through her. "H-how will I do it?" she stuttered as her body shook slightly. "I've never tried one before, and I'm not exactly a very skillful Pokémon, and I'm terrible at fighting!"

"_Don't worry, we're as much in the dark as you are," _Latias noted drily, her eyes taking a very soft hue of blue as she used her psychic powers to translate Smeargle's speech into Bianca's mind. _"But we're in this together, and we have to get this done."_

"The contest is in a few hours. We have until then to come up with something to do for it," Bianca instructed with her voice barely hiding a hint of concern. She hummed as a thoughtful expression formed on her face. She paced around the clearing, thinking hard for several moments for a good appeal to decide upon. Both her Pokémon friends stared at her, patiently waiting for her to say something. Both inevitably sulked when they saw Bianca sigh in disappointment, an obvious gesture that nothing worth of use came to her mind. "This… is gonna be a little harder than I thought," she mumbled in a tone of disenchantment.

"_You're an artist Bianca, you need patience and time to think things out,"_ Latias said gently, reaching forward and giving her best friend an affectionate and comforting nuzzle. Bianca giggled slightly at the ticklish contact and brought her arms up to pet the ever-playful dragoness. _"Why don't you take out your sketchbook and start doing random doodles of some ideas? That'll help you get some inspiration. In the meantime, I'll spar with Smeargle to let __her warm up for the contest, and get her to practice her moves a bit," _Latias suggested, doing her best to contribute any kind of help.

A nervous frown drifted across Smeargle's face, not exactly excited at the idea of scuffling with a Legendary Pokémon. Sure, she knew Latias was very nice and friendly, but that didn't mean she wasn't powerful. It was still a discouraging prospect, and even more so than the contest that was in less than three hours. "It's just practice sparring, so you'll go easy on me, right?" she asked uneasily, just to be sure.

Latias laughed heartily. _"Relax, Smeargle. I'm not the best battler myself. I'll go easy. It's just fun sparring to test out our skills. Plus, it won't be good if I hurt you before Bianca's inaugural contest."_

Smeargle sighed in relief. "Okay," she said, her voice sounding much calmer after that revelation. She idly wondered how Bianca and Latias were planning to prepare a Pokémon with barely sufficient experience like her for a fully competitive contest. She knew whoever she was going to compete against might have months or years of expertise in contests, something that made her nerves tremble with anxiety.

Latias smiled comfortingly at the nervousness her empathy was picking up from the inexperienced Smeargle_. "This is just for fun, so don't worry," _she reassured telepathically, so Bianca could also participate in the conversation. _"Don't feel so overwhelmed by the thought of us demanding success."_

Bianca nodded in agreement. "Yeah… that's actually a really good point, Latias, to take this contest as just for fun. It certainly takes away some pressure off me if I think of it like that. Anyway, Smeargle, I don't really have any high hopes of actually _winning_ the contest. I won't feel mad or disappointed if we don't win it. Like Latias said, this is just a fun experience for us. So don't feel that pressured, Smeargle. However, that doesn't mean we're not going to try our best to put on a respectful performance for everyone and for our friends," she explained, reaching forward and petting Smeargle on the head tenderly.

"_Yeah, Smeargle, so calm down and take a deep breath, take it easy and without pressure, and let's try to do our best,"_ Latias added in agreement to her best friend's initial speech. _"We understand both your limitations and our limitations."_

"Thanks," the normal-type said appreciatively as she felt her anxiety and nervousness slowly vanish at the reassuring words of her new friends. She took a couple of deep breaths, allowing the feeling of calmness and relaxation wash over her refreshingly.

"So, Smeargle, what…" Bianca began to speak, but paused mid-question, humming softly to herself. "Smeargle… Smeargle…Smeargle…" she repeated under her breath, a thoughtful expression on her young features. Latias tilted her head, puzzled at Bianca's actions.

The Painter Pokémon glanced at her in confusion. "What's wrong?" she asked, wondering what was up with her trainer.

"Do you have a name?" Bianca suddenly asked.

"What? A name?" Smeargle repeated, just to be sure, as Bianca's question had come completely randomly and abruptly. "Well, no, I don't," she answered. "Many Pokémon in the Academy had names or nicknames, especially when there were several Pokémon of the same species available, but I wasn't named at the Academy. Since I was their only Smeargle, it wasn't really needed. And I didn't get a name from my parents at birth, because I was born in captivity."

"Pokémon parents name their young too?" Bianca asked curiously after Latias had finished her translations. "Like us humans do?"

"Yep," Smeargle answered. "Or so I've heard, from my time running about in the forest after I was released from the Academy."

"_Yes, they do,"_ Latias echoed, deciding to expand upon Smeargle's answer. _"Naming children is a wonderful thing. And honestly, it's needed sometimes. Think about a flock for example, you can have dozens of Pokémon of the same species, meaning it'd get very confusing to try and call one distinct individual from the group by their species name. So, most Pokémon get names from their parents. Once the Pokémon grows independent from their parents, the choice to keep going by it is completely up to each individual. Child naming is extremely common in large groups of Pokémon like communities, flocks, pods, and so on," _the dragoness explained, giving a small pause to let Bianca absorb her initial explanation. _"For example, many Pokémon in the Secret Garden got along together as a sort of __community, and despite being many different species of Pokémon, they all had names. I imagine humans rarely realize this because, for one thing, they can't understand our speech."_

Bianca nodded in acknowledgement. "Thanks for the explanation, Latias. It was crystal clear."

"_Why did you bring it up, though?"_ Latias asked curiously. _"__I got to say, it certainly seems like a random topic to discuss at this point and time__."_

"You see, I've seen on TV that a lot of trainers that name or nickname their Pokémon, and I like that. I know Ash and Brock don't do that, but I always imagined that if I ever had a Pokémon, I'd do it. I feel naming a Pokémon is a really great way to bond," Bianca explained. "So, Smeargle, if you don't have a name, would it be okay if we gave you one?"

Smeargle hummed, thoughtful about the young artist's suggestion. After several moments of pondering, she returned a small nod. "Sure, I don't mind. Smeargle doesn't sound _that _nice, a name would be cool. As long as it's one I like, obviously," she answered.

"What about… uh…" Latias frowned, her mind racing to find interesting names. _"Thinking up names is a bit harder than I thought."_ She decided to just say ones off the top of her head. _"What about… Kesha? Chloe? Allison? Mel? Katy? … Pansy? … Uh… Okay. I'm officially terrible with names."_

Smeargle chuckled in amusement, glad that the dragoness had admitted they weren't good. She was already not liking the proposition of being named something as silly as Pansy. "Yes, I noticed that, Latias."

Bianca smiled, stifling a laugh at the exchange between the two Pokémon. She closed her eyes, thinking about what she knew of Smeargle and trying to relate that to names. Her smile suddenly broadened as the perfect one, at least in her mind, came to her. "Hey, how does Candace sound?"

Smeargle paused, looking thoughtful for several moments. "Hey, I like that. It's a pretty name. It has a nice ring to it."

Latias nodded in agreement. "Well, it's better than my silly suggestions for sure. And it was on your first try, too."

"So, are you okay with it?" Bianca asked, just to be sure. "You accept Candace as your name?"

Smeargle smiled. "Sure, I'm fine. I like it, definitely sounds better than 'Smeargle' does," she answered.

Bianca flashed a smile back. "Okay, Candace it is," she announced. The newly named Candace nodded.

"So, _Candace_," Bianca started, putting emphasis on the Painter Pokémon's new name, which made Latias giggle softly and the newly named Smeargle roll her pupils. "What were your attacks? I totally forgot them. I need to know them so I can try and think something up."

"My attacks are Sketch, Swift, Water Pulse, Fire Spin and Magical Leaf," Candace elucidated informatively.

"Sketch?" Bianca asked once Latias had translated the speech in her mind. "I might have heard it before, but I don't know what it does."

"It basically allows me to copy any move and learn it once I've seen it," Candace answered. "Which won't really work in a contest, I think. So, practice now?" She gazed at Latias as she asked her question. The Eon Dragoness nodded and flew outwards to the clearing, turning her back to the Painter Pokémon. Candace smirked at the opportunity and rapidly clapped her front paws. A formation of star-shaped projectiles composed of golden energy appeared before her, and she rapidly hurled them towards Latias.

The dragoness yelled out a surprised squeal and swiftly activated her psychic powers. With ease, she mentally started dismantling all the energy bolts headed her way. "Hey, that's not fair at all!"

Candace laughed. "Sorry, I couldn't resist." Latias rolled her eyes.

Bianca shook her head in amusement at the two as she walked towards a tree, sitting down with her legs crossed. She took out her sketchbook and placed it on her legs, deciding to follow Latias' original suggestion of making doodles of her ideas to help draw inspiration. She tapped her chin with her pencil in deep thought as she observed the blank sheet of paper before her, trying to come up with a way to form a decent and coherent appeal for her upcoming contest. "What did Janet get me into…" she muttered, nothing good coming to her mind. Several long minutes went by, the only sounds being those generated by the small sparring match between the two Pokémon.

Bianca gazed up from her sketchbook, seeing Candace launching a Water Pulse at Latias, who gracefully eluded it. Smiling from the scene, she started making a doodle of a pair of attacks in her sketchbook. However, she stopped midpoint and frowned at what she had been drawing. "No, not gonna work…," she whispered in frustration.

"_Artists need patience, Bianca_," Latias reminded her telepathically, projecting a friendly smile in her thoughts afterwards. _"You can come up with something__ simple yet elegant."_

"Thanks, Latias," Bianca returned gratefully as she gazed up from her sketchbook towards the two Pokémon that were with her. "Just make sure Candace is in shape. I'll think of something."

Latias nodded. "I will, I will." She then performed a sudden loop in midair, easily dodging a Water Pulse from the Smeargle. "You need to try harder, Candace." She said, smirking.

"Hey, that gives me an idea. Try hitting the Water Pulse with a Fire Spin," Bianca suggested, intently gazing at Candace.

Candace nodded and prepared another Water Pulse, her paws clapping together and beginning to form the orb of pressurized water. She tossed the attack upwards, in the direction of a large tree. She then began to shift attacks, preparing a Fire Spin. To her, Bianca, and Latias' dismay, she didn't charge her Fire Spin fast enough, and the water Pulse had already crashed against a tree with a large splash by the time she was ready to launch the second attack. "… Okay, I'm _really_ out of shape," she stated in a mixture of annoyance and dismay.

"How about, use Magical Leaf upwards, and then try to hit your leaves with Swift?" Bianca suggested as a potentially easier alternative.

Candace nodded curtly, shifting attacks once again. She waved her paws forward, a wisp of multicolor-tinted energy forming around them. Rapidly, a barrage of bright leaves began swirling in a rainbow-colored veil of energy, and once ready, she fired them upwards. Candace, not wanting to disappoint again, charged up the next attack, Swift, as quickly as her abilities would allow her. She grinned in excitement when the golden energy from Swift had gathered in just a second around her paws, and then directed it upwards towards her Magical Leaf.

Candace, Latias, and Bianca sighed collectively when most of the star-shaped projectiles from Swift failed to make any contact with the leaves. Some did hit a leaf or two, making a rather bright twinkle of multicolored energy from the point of collision. However, the number of impacts was minimal at best. Both attacks continued their path before losing power and eventually faded from view. "Well, the effect was rather cool. But it's gonna be hard to get her to have enough practice with it to hit all the leaves with the Swift stars," Bianca commented.

Candace sulked in disappointment, kicking the ground with her paws. "I'm pathetic."

Latias smiled comfortingly, wrapping an arm around the Painter Pokémon's shoulders. _"It's okay. You just need practice. A few months ago I didn't know how to use the most basic of moves. We all learn with patience and time__,"_ she said, her voice gentle and tender. Candace nodded appreciatively, feeling glad to have her friend's support.

Bianca's gaze once again went to her sketchbook. "Swift and Magical Leaf won't work together, and Fire Spin takes her a while to prepare…" Bianca muttered as she continued drawing ideas on her sketchbook. Latias and Candace, seeing Bianca resume her drawing, decided to continue their light practicing. They kept sparring, with Bianca drawing her ideas in her book and occasionally instructing Smeargle and Latias to rehearse some of them.

Time went on, minutes transforming into hours. The sun began to gradually advance in the sky, moving closer and closer to the horizon. Surely, after enough tries and the failures that came with them, the trio had come up with a simple but workable appeal. After practicing it as much as they could and making all the possible preparations their limited abilities and time gave them, they made sure to give Smeargle the rest she required to prepare for the contest.

It was set to be their very first contest as a team.

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><p><strong>Author Notes: <strong>This was mainly a set up chapter, with Bianca's first contest next chapter! How will she do? Will she fail? Or will she pull something awesome and be the surprise participant with a shocking underdog win? Find out next chappie! :D

Also, next series of chapters are going to be quite action packed, with the story's first contest, Ash's Gym battle against Roxanne, and Team Aqua's attack against Devon Corp. (which was set up in a earlier installment). I hope that action part coming up does not disappoint. Until next chapter, my friends!


	15. A Coordinator's Debut

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.**

"Speech."

'_Thoughts'_

"_Telepathy"_

**Author's Note:** Chapter 15's here!

**Important announcement: **I now have an official artist for my stories. I'll be paying her to draw diverse artwork for my many stories. The very first artwork done to start off this partnership was a commission for **Stopping The Storm**, my very long one-shot featuring a battle between Mewtwo and Rayquaza. To take a look at it, check my profile for a direct link. For further information, consult my **DeviantArt** Page **FF-ARCY**, again, link to it is on my profile.

**Chapter 15 – A Coordinator's Debut**

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><p>"Ladies and gentlemen! Thank you very much for your patience, because the wait is finally over!" An adult woman facing the crowd, currently standing in the very center of the contest arena shouted into a microphone, which made the loudspeakers lining the arena come to life and boom her voice over the structure imposingly. The woman was clearly in her early or mid-twenties and had light brown curled hair that ran down her back and pretty blue eyes. She was dressed in a red blouse with a long pink skirt. She also had a black necklace and her hands were covered by a pair of elegant white gloves. "The Rustboro City Pokémon contest is about to get underway!" she spoke into the microphone again, her voice projecting an energetic excitement that seem to be contagious to the crowd as they began to applaud loudly and cheer in approval in response to her. "I'm Vivian Meridian, and as usual I'll be your MC today!"<p>

Vivian turned around and walked towards the judges. They were seated behind a colorful electronic panel lined with flickering lights and a screen before each one of them. "I'll introduce our judges for today's competition! For this year's contest season, we are delighted to have this fine selection of Pokémon Contest Judges. First is the main judge, Honorable Raoul Contesta, the respectable director of the Contest Committee _and_ chief of the Pokémon Activities Committee!" she introduced, bowing slightly and waving her arm in Raoul's direction afterwards.

The first of the three judges stood up as he was introduced. He was wearing a very elegant red suit with a black bow just below his neck. He had his hair neatly combed backwards, and the few flecks of gray clearly denoted his veteran age. "Thank you, Vivian," Contesta acknowledged with a nod, and then took a seat.

"Next up is the President of the Pokémon Fan Club, Mr. Sukizo!" Vivian introduced, using her arm to motion at the judge seated at the middle of the panel. The aforementioned man waved at the cameras and audience in response. He was very small in stature, had very short hair, and wearing a dark-gray suit with a red tie. "And finally," Vivian continued, walking towards the last judge. "We have Rustboro City's very own Nurse Joy!" she announced as Nurse Joy waved to the stands.

The audience applauded the judges, cheering impatiently for the contest to begin. Somewhere in the stands surrounding the arena in the center, around the middle rows, Ash stopped clapping as he looked down at the showground expectantly. "This seems interesting, so far," he commented as he gazed around, eying the spectacular arena. "I'm curious to see what Bianca prepared."

"I'm very curious as well," Brock agreed, nodding once. "The stage is all set up. Competition will surely be tough. But I think Bianca can pull through this one. She's very smart and talented."

"I hope so…" Ash muttered. His gaze rapidly shifted to the arena as Vivian introduced the first contestant, seconds afterwards, the mentioned coordinator began to make his way onto the stage.

"I just hope we didn't pressure her _too_ much with making her join this contest on such a short notice. Bianca had no idea she'd be doing this when she woke up this morning." Brock crossed his arms. "All we have left is to believe in Bianca."

Back on the stage, Vivian walked out of the arena to give the incoming coordinator space to work on. The MC positioned herself near the judge panel. "And this contest has begun at last!" she said excitedly.

The coordinator who had been selected to perform first, a young trainer named Brett, reached into one of his pockets and grabbed a Pokéball, and then hurled it towards the stage. "Slugma, time to give a show!" he shouted. With a bright flash of white light, the Pokémon materialized onto the showground. It was a mainly red slug-like Pokémon that seemed to be made of pure lava. Fiery extensions danced across its body slowly while two big, yellow eyes gleamed energetically, prominently visible against its vivid coloration.

"Oh, a Slugma!" Vivian noted with interest. "What an interesting option to start this contest with, and also a very odd one too. I haven't seen a Slugma participate in a contest in _years_. I wonder, how will it perform in this appeals round?" the MC said into the microphone.

"Slugma, use Smokescreen!" Brett ordered. Instantly the Lava Pokémon complied with its coordinator's command. Taking a deep breath, it aimed its head upwards and released a thick and heavy plume of black smoke. The cloud of smoke rapidly spread across the arena, completely blocking it from view, leaving many people perplexed as they gazed at the odd starting move.

On the stands, Ash blinked in confusion. Oddly, the smoke reminded him of James' Weezing. "I don't get it. If contests are about being graceful and flashy and stuff like that, why is he having that Slugma hide the stage with something as ugly as smoke? That… makes no sense," he questioned.

"_Maybe he's preparing some kind of trick inside it? I don't know, Ash. Contests are sometimes _very_ unpredictable,"_ Latias answered, gazing expectantly at the arena. Along with her older brother, she was invisible, floating near the roof of the building in a position that was almost exactly above Ash and Brock's location in the stands. _"The best coordinators are the ones that deliver the best surprises to the crowd and judges. That adds a lot to the general appeal of Pokémon Contests," _the Eon Dragoness added.

Once the smoke had evenly covered the arena in its entirety, the coordinator smirked. "It's time to start our _real_ performance! Slugma, use Flamethrower!" From inside the heavy plume of smoke, a flash of red light began to be visible, barely illuminating the heavy darkness brought by the smog. The red light suddenly expanded to a pair of rising flames as Slugma fired the Flamethrower attack. The move lit up against the smokescreen, creating a strong color contrast of murky black and bright red and yellow. The twin flamethrowers then began to close into each other. With a great display of control over the fire move, the Slugma carefully made the attacks form a vague heart-shaped figure of pure fire inside the obscurity of the smoke.

"Oh, wow! What a creative use of smokescreen to add a mysterious touch to the flamethrower! It's an impressive combination," Vivian remarked as the fiery heart disappeared into small embers, leaving the arena smoke dark again. The three judges watched intently, keenly evaluating both the coordinator and Pokémon while awaiting his next action.

"Now, use Ember!" the coordinator commanded. Once again, the insides of the smokescreen came to life with bright twinkles of red and yellow as fiery orbs emanating from the center began to spread across the smoke. They rapidly formed an extraordinary display of blistering fireworks that distinguished themselves strikingly against the smoke like real fireworks would shine against a dark night sky. The crowd began to cheer in approval, clapping and whistling at the stunning appeal. "And now, for our closing number, use Fire Spin, Slugma!" Brett ordered sharply.

As the Embers began to die down inside the smoke, another red light began to appear, which unlike the first two, became a lot more prominent in lighting up the smoke. Rapidly, the entire smokescreen was lively brightened by a series of spiraling streams of fire that shot upwards. The spiraling flames began to slowly spread out, causing the smoke to disperse gradually and reveal the Slugma still located in the middle of the arena. As the Fire Spin began to disappear, leaving small cinders and embers raining down on the arena, the Slugma bowed its head to the audience.

"Impressive! That was simply impressive!" Vivian cried out, clapping a couple times before returning the microphone in front of her mouth. "It's like Slugma created an artificial night with the smoke to increase the light effect that the fire brought, simply amazing. Brett and his Slugma have sure started this contest strong!" she said lively, and afterwards turned towards the judges to await their evaluations.

For several long seconds, everyone gazed expectantly at the three judges. Suddenly, the screens in front of each judge flashed as they turned on, their respective scores appearing on them. On Raoul Contesta's screen, a score of seven point four appeared. On Mr. Sukizo's screen, a score of seven was shown, and finally, under Nurse Joy, the screen showed a score of seven point one. The scores were displayed on two massive screens located at each side of the contest hall so the entire audience could clearly see them.

"Oh, that's nice!" Vivian called, awestruck. "That adds up to a neat score of twenty-one point five!" The crowd erupted in cheers, impressed with the scores given.

"That was an amazing combination of moves," Raoul Contesta commented, clapping a couple times as he began his evaluation. "The smokescreen left me dubious at first, but using it to increase the visual effects for the fire attacks was a brilliant move. Impressive combo indeed. Never seen these two attacks in tandem before, and I surely won't forget it anytime soon."

"Remarkable," Mr. Sukizo said simply, nodding once in approval.

"That Slugma is clearly well raised. It's in a very healthy condition, if that vibrant and lively red coloration is anything to go by. Also, it managed to maintain an impressive state of concentration and control to perform its moves effectively despite being inside a thick smokescreen," Nurse Joy noted. "A fantastic contest Pokémon indeed. You've done a great job raising it."

Above the stands, Latios blinked in confusion. _"How come two judges say nice, long opinions about the contest yet one of them is all quiet and just says one word about it?"_ he wondered.

Latias shrugged. _"He's always been like that. He rarely says anything outside of remarkable," _she clarified. _"However, his judging numbers and scores are usually accurate."_

"That was cool," Ash said, a grin on his face. "I've never seen anything like this before. It's gonna be more exciting than I thought. At first I thought contests were just silly girl stuff, but now I'm really interested."

"I know. Contests are fantastic," Brock agreed, watching as the coordinator left the stage and another one walked out. "A good contest can be almost as entertaining as any battle, Ash."

"_I totally agree on that,"_ Latias quipped in immediately. _"Though, those who prefer contests obviously find them better. Also, if Bianca does decide to permanently do contests that means we'll have to get used to watching them, which I also support completely." _The invisible dragoness' gaze was firmly settled on the arena as the next coordinator walked in, a young girl dressed in a colorful attire.

The coordinator took out a Pokéball. "Go, Linoone!" she called out. Instead of throwing her Pokéball to the ground or a slightly upwards angle, she threw it completely upwards. It was clear she practiced her tossing as her throw was very accurate and _very_ high. Several seconds later after the Pokéball had traveled a very good distance up a bright flash of light followed. Almost a couple dozen feet over the floor a Linoone appeared. The instant the very slender, light brown-colored Pokémon with dark brown stripes lining its body appeared over the arena, it began to fall back down towards the stage. However, the Rushing Pokémon made a series of rapid gymnastic spins as he plummeted to the platform. It landed cleanly on its back paws while its front body bowed towards the audience and cameras.

Vivian clapped a couple times. "Oh, wow! Talk about a dynamic entry!" she said in approval.

"It's our time to shine. Use Seed Bomb and follow up with Slash!" the young coordinator ordered in a cheerful voice. The Linoone complied with its trainer's will immediately and took a deep breath, its mouth releasing a couple sparkles of green-tinted energy as it did so. It aimed its head upwards and then fired several potent lively green-colored energy spheres, starting out with a stronger one and tuning down the power as it fired more of them. That made the first orbs rise higher and the last ones to reach lower in the air.

The Linoone crouched down on all fours, and to the audience's surprise, it made a massive vertical leap. Due to its powerful back legs and a well-built body, the Pokémon's jump was impressive. As it soared upwards, its claws extended as they glowed a solid white color. When the Rushing Pokémon reached the first green sphere, it slashed it cleanly. That made the Seed Bomb sphere pop in a bright flash of green sparkles and glittering energy residue. The Pokémon did not stop there, its jump had enough energy in it to let it reach even more of the spheres it had fired. With clearly well-practiced ease, the normal-type Pokémon slashed each of the Seed Bombs expertly, causing them to explode into leftover glitters of green energy that rained down into the arena like a shower of sparkles.

"Wow, that's extraordinary! Not only was that a striking jump, the visuals produced by its move combination are very appealing too! Just look at them!" Vivian commented as green glitter rained down on the first few rows of the stands and the stage. "Huh, wait, it looks like Linoone isn't going to make it to the last one!" she suddenly exclaimed when she noticed that Linoone's ascent was starting to slow down dramatically, and the final Seed Bomb orb was too far away for it to reach it.

The coordinator smirked. "Time for our surprise! You know what to do, Linoone!" she shouted. Linoone responded immediately by angling its body downwards, shifting its weight and making it begin to fall back to the arena, apparently forgetting about its last Seed Bomb. Just as the normal-type was reaching the floor, it spun several times acrobatically. With excellent precision, a final Seed Bomb was fired by the Linoone, which collided cleanly with the Seed Bomb it had purposely failed to reach. The result was a very vibrant blast of green light that filled the contest arena the exact same instant Linoone landed perfectly in the center of the stage.

"Unbelievable! That had me worried for a moment there, but it ended up as quite the amazing appeal, purely fantastic!" Vivian exclaimed energetically. The audience clearly agreed with the MC's comments, as many rose to their feet from their seats and began clapping and cheering.

Once the noise from the audience died down slightly, the judges began their evaluations. "That was a very impacting appeal," Raoul Contesta agreed, echoing Vivian's own narrating. "That last surprise in making us think that Linoone's appeal was going to fail, but then suddenly turned it into a fantastic end is a marvelous idea that is sure to keep any audience hooked up to the very end. Another thing I particularly enjoyed of your performance was the fact it displayed your Linoone's attributes and skill very nicely."

"Remarkable," Mr. Sukizo said simply.

"I'm really impressed this time," Nurse Joy began, carefully eyeing the Linoone with a studious glance. "That's one well-raised and very-well trained Linoone you have there. They aren't particularly known for jumping as they are for running, but it sure packs a big leap. That added to perfectly pristine fur, vivid personality and excellent synchronizing and orientation with his acrobatics and moves make up for a very complete and fabulous Pokémon."

"Now that we've heard their evaluations, it's time to see what scores have been given!" Vivian called out. The screens under the judges flashed to life yet again, making everyone focus on them as the three judges imputed their scores. Three numbers flashed. Seven point one for Contesta, Seven point two under Sukizo and finally, seven point eight for Nurse Joy. "Wow! That adds up to twenty-two point one, just beating out our previous contestant's score by a point six margin!" Vivian called out, impressed. "This contest is certainly getting off to an exciting start!"

"Thank you, everyone!" the young coordinator girl called out as she returned her Linoone back to its Pokéball and then made her way to the backstage rooms. Another contestant, this time a much older woman with very long straight brown hair, began to make her to the contest arena to continue the competition.

"… Woah!" Ash exclaimed, simply at a loss for words at the performance he had just seen. The trainer remembered he had seen that girl and the Linoone outside the arena and that he took the time to check Linoone out with his Pokédex, but he had no idea they were that skilled or good. "That… was… it was… so awesome!" he said in shock.

Brock himself was also impressed, he found himself nodding in agreement to Ash's surprised comments. "That was really great, and that girl seems so young too. If she's this good at this age, she'll have a bright future as a coordinator if she keeps up at this pace. I'm curious as to what other Pokémon she might have."

Pikachu hummed, tilting his head as he thought of the two appeals that had passed so far. "Okay, I'll have to concede it, contests aren't half bad after all," he admitted. "They're definitely entertaining to watch, it's something that's new for us, and a good change from watching battles all the time."

"_Duh, of course they are, Pikachu,"_ Latias chided, lightly pushing the electric-type psychically to empathize on her chiding, however, it was clear the dragoness had done it in a playful manner. _"They're very fun to watch. Personally, I think this is _way_ better than just trying to hurt each other in battles."_

"_Eh… I still prefer battles,"_ Latios said simply, shrugging once. _"But I've at least always found contests bearable to watch,"_ the dragon added. Latias rolled her eyes. She didn't expect anything less from her brother. _"You made me watch them a lot with you to please you."_ Latias grinned at him.

"Well, if they're this fun all the time, I wouldn't mind seeing Bianca compete in them more often," Ash commented. "Is their league-thing scheduled at the same time as the Pokémon League?" the trainer asked, glancing at Brock. "That _would_ worry me."

"No, it's not," Brock answered instantly without needing to consult any of his books or information sources. "All regions generally schedule the Grand Festival one month or at the very least three weeks before their league, so they don't overlap. If they were put at the same time, they'd divide viewer and tourist attention between them, and that would hurt each other by creating unnecessary competition." It was clear Brock was very aware on how the system worked, being a former Gym Leader.

"Oh, then we can share our travels without problem, that's nice." Ash frowned. "Are you sure we'd have enough time to gather all my badges and get all her ribbons?" he asked.

"With some time management? Yeah, we should," Brock answered. "If we're ever late, we can just have Latios and Latias fly us around to collect the last in a couple days." Latios rolled his eyes in amusement at Brock's suggestion, but he could admit it was something fairly valid and something he wouldn't deny to doing for his friends.

"And our next contestant is up, let's see what kind of performance she'll delight us with!" Vivian announced over the loudspeakers with her microphone, bringing the group's attention back to the contest arena just as the woman that had walked up to it launched her Pokéball to the center of the stage.

A bright flash of light was created by the Pokéball bursting open, releasing a bipedal, lavender-colored, sheep-like Pokémon with white colored wool surrounding its head and neck. "Flaaffy, use Cotton Spore!" the coordinator ordered as soon as the electric-type Pokémon was ready to go. Flaaffy let out a long cry as its wool began to vibrate, making dozens of white cotton orbs emanate from it, drifting along the entire area around it.

"Ooooh, this is interesting, our contestant has decided to start with a slow move like Cotton Spore. I'm curious as to where this will take us," Vivian said expectantly as she watched the cotton spheres drift along the entire arena very slowly, almost tantalizingly.

"Now, use Thunder Wave!" the coordinator ordered. Flaaffy nodded as a blue electricity began to elegantly dance around the Wool Pokémon, creating a blue glow around it with occasional static arching between its white wool. With a mighty cry, it released the bolts of electricity all around it. The blue electrical energy rapidly arched around all the cotton spore orbs that had been created earlier by the electric-type, creating a very bright and complex spider web of electricity dancing brightly between all of them. Seconds later, all the soft cotton orbs burst in flames as they were lit up by the Thunder Wave, making them fall to the ground in burnt cinders.

"Ta-da!" The coordinator beamed, bowing to the audience. Her Flaaffy mimicked her actions, bowing down to the crowd as she did so. Claps greeted the coordinator in response, though it was clear the crowd wasn't as excited as with Slugma or Linoone's appeals.

"And that's a simple and fast, but quite flashy appeal," Vivian said, turning around to face the judges. "Let's see what our honorable judge panel has to say about it!"

"That was a rather short appeal," Raoul Contesta began, frowning. "It's neatly planned out and executed, but it's too brief. You need to draw it out more and grip the audience, because it feels like it began and ended way too fast. It feels too rushed, however, I do commend that it was a very interesting combination that created a good visual appeal," he added, finishing his evaluation.

"Remarkable," Mr. Sukizo said simply.

"Your Flaaffy is in a very great condition. It's got very clean and spotless wool and that lavender color is fantastic. Its electricity is strong and vivid, all traits of a well-raised and well cared Flaaffy. Now, you need to work on extending your performance and making it bring out your Pokémon's talents better," Nurse Joy said judgingly.

The screens under each judge flashed to life, each displaying their scores. Raoul Contesta had given a five point four. Mr. Sukizo had scored them a five point nine. Finally, Nurse Joy's screen showed a more positive score of six point nine. "Okay, that's not as good as the previous two contestants, but a total score of eighteen point two is still respectable, regardless." The coordinator returned her Flaaffy and wordlessly returned to the backrooms.

"That wasn't as cool as the last two," Ash commented, agreeing with Vivian and the judges. "Though, it still was nice."

"I liked it a lot," Pikachu remarked. "I liked that electric display. It should have gotten better scores."

"_No, really? Electric-type liked electricity-based contest display?"_ Latios said sarcastically. _"I'm so shocked." _

Latias sighed. _"That was a terrible pun,"_ she stated drily, making Latios laugh nervously at her.

"I've got a Thunder just for you. All yours, later," Pikachu promised. Latios rolled his eyes in amusement.

"And let's give a warm welcome to the next contestant, Janet!" Vivian called out, motioning towards the entrance to the arena. A few seconds later, Janet walked out. She headed towards the arena, bowing once to the cameras and audience as soon as she arrived.

"Hey, Janet's next!" Ash said excitedly. "I really wanna see what she and Beautifly are gonna do."

"_If she already has two contest ribbons, I bet it's gonna be good,"_ Latias said positively.

"Beautifly, let's entice the audience!" Janet called as she hurled her Pokéball upwards. The red and white-colored sphere opened midair, releasing the very pretty bug and flying-type Pokémon from the confines of the electronic sphere. The Butterfly Pokémon let out a shrill cry of greeting towards the audience. As she did so, she extended her stunningly pretty, multicolored wings broadly to display them proudly.

"Now, that's a great greeting! Just look at those wings, they're gorgeous!" Vivian spoke into the microphone, clearly enthralled at Beautifly's appearance.

"Let's begin the show, Beautifly. Start out with Quiver Dance!" Janet shouted, spreading her arms wide as she did so. Beautifly let out another shrill vocalization and complied with her trainer's order. She flapped her wings a couple times to ascend higher into the arena's airspace until she reached a height that was roughly equal distance to the roof and to the floor. As she rose, a mystifying green glow began to surround her form dimly. As the seconds went by, the glow went from dim to prominently noticeable. Beautifly then began to perform a sort of mystic dance, flapping her wings in graceful and fluid strokes as she swirled around in the air and spun about in elegant circles and loops while forming intricate and complex patterns with her delicate movements. All the while, her radiant body was releasing sparkling lights and an alluring glow that seemed to flow perfectly with her every captivating motion.

"… This is beautiful…" Vivian whispered, her voice so low even the mic barely picked it up. It was almost as if she was trying to not interrupt the Butterfly Pokémon's fascinating appeal. Even the audience was quiet as they watched the dancing Pokémon.

"_So pretty!"_ Latias chimed mentally, clapping her claws together while her eyes were completely glued on the Beautifly's ongoing performance. Latios reluctantly nodded in agreement, admitting that the dance was rather interesting to watch. The blue dragon idly wondered how he'd look doing a Dragon Dance. _"Not as pretty or interesting, that's for sure,"_ Latias said telepathically in his mind as soon as she picked up those thoughts through their mental bond, making Latios playfully push her.

Brock's jaw dropped, clearly impressed. "Janet's _good_. I've never seen a Quiver Dance looking this good or interesting before."

"I don't even know what Quiver Dance is, what's that attack supposed to do?" Ash asked curiously, glancing at his more knowledgeable friend.

"Quiver Dance is a status move that, by performing a mystical dance, lets the Pokémon become faster, stronger and more resistant to special attacks," Brock responded. "But Janet's using it like a great ballet move, while making Beautifly stronger too. I wonder if she'll take advantage of that in the rest of her appeal," the breeder speculated, carefully watching Janet and Beautifly.

"Wow, that's a cool move," Ash commented, looking up at the dancing bug and flying-type. Beautifly's spectacular dance increased in speed as the move allowed her to move faster and become more nimble, yet the bug and flying-type clearly retained her elegance. The glow surrounding her gradually became stronger and began letting out even more sparkles as she picked up the pace.

"Beautifly, it's time for the next phase of our appeal, use String shot!" Janet shouted. Beautifly spat a long and _very_ thin string of sticky web-like silk and immediately spun around, fluidly continuing her supple Quiver Dance. Since the silk line she had produced was extremely thin and lightweight, it almost seemed to elegantly glide through the air slowly, it's descent towards the arena's floor being very gentle and gradual.

Astonishingly, the fact she was now continuously spitting out a thread of silk made no distractions for the Butterfly Pokémon. Beautifly continued her dance skillfully, keeping perfect concentration as she stylishly danced around the air while dragging the silk strand she continued to spit from her long, thin mouth. As she kept spitting the sticky silk line, which kept becoming longer and longer, it began to flow along with her movements more prominently. "Wow, this almost looks like ribbon dancing," Vivian commented, watching the bug-type's display with glee.

Janet smirked, the silence in the audience meant she had them exactly where she wanted them, completely and utterly focused on her Pokémon. "And for our final act, use Flash!" Beautifly suddenly froze midair for several instants, the greenish glow around her from her Quiver Dance dying down rapidly. She flapped her wings and spun in a wide circle around the arena several times, taking advantage of the speed increase from her earlier move to make the motion quicker and more fluid. The silk line she had been spitting trailed around behind her. Once she had finished, she cut the sticky silk thread from her mouth and let it begin to very slowly fall down to the arena's floor. Without warning, Beautifly let out a very shrill and piercing cry as her gorgeous wings exploded in a blast of intense white light, rapidly illuminating the arena as if it was midday inside of it. The light emitted from her reflected off the many silk strands that were gently gliding down, creating a wide series of spherical sparkling threads surrounding the contest hall's central arena. Her Flash was perfect. It wasn't too bright or strong so that it didn't blind anyone and could be safely looked at directly, but not too dim so as not to be bright enough to fulfill its goal. It was a carefully planned and well-practiced blast of pure, gentle radiance.

The crowd burst into cheers as Beautifly's flash ended and she began to glide down towards her trainer, where she neatly landed into Janet's outstretched arms. Both then bowed at the cheering audience. "Impressive! Impressive! This is definitely the appeal of the night so far!" Vivian cried out in excitement.

"I most certainly agree with that statement, Vivian," Raoul Contesta said once the cheering noise from the audience had somewhat died down, clapping his hands repeatedly. "The way that Beautifly performs its attacks is _very _impressive. Quiver Dance awestruck me the most. Especially when it was combined with String Shot for an eye-catching ribbon dance. It's well known that performing two attacks at the same time with such control is no easy thing. The coordination maintained by Beautifly over the entire show clearly denotes hours upon hours of training put into practicing this. Most fascinating." The screen under him flashed as he typed in his score. The number eight point one flashed into the screen.

"Remarkable," Mr. Sukizo said simply. A second later, the score eight point two flashed on the screen under him. Janet sweat-dropped, clearly expecting to have at least gotten more of a comment from him.

"… _Okay, if that appeal didn't make him say something other than 'remarkable' then nothing else will,"_ Latios said flatly. Latias sighed, but nodded in agreement afterwards.

"I'm very amazed. This is easily the healthiest and most radiant Beautifly I've ever seen in my life. And being from Rustboro City, I see a lot of Beautifly from trainers who get one in the Petalburg Woods. Its wings are simply perfect and its control and execution of its attacks are flawless. You've done an amazing job in raising it to become a strong and competitive Pokémon," Joy said, evaluating the health of Janet's Beautifly. The score eight point seven suddenly flashed into her screen.

"As expected, this fantastic appeal worthy of a total score of twenty-five has taken Janet to the first place of this contest's appeal round so far, and pretty much guaranteed her a spot in the next battle round!" Vivian announced. "All of our upcoming contestants surely have a tough trial ahead to live up to the show put on by Janet."

"Thank you, everyone!" Janet smiled and waved once to the audience, cameras and judges before turning around to walk towards the backstage, unlike the first coordinators she didn't return her Beautifly on the spot, instead deciding to walk away with her at her side.

Vivian took a brief instant to consult a small sheet she had to determine the names of the next group of coordinators and what order they would be appearing in. Once she had memorized the next few participants she swiftly hid it inside one of her gloves. "Let's give a round of applause to our next contestant, Bianca of Alto Mare!" she announced. "This will be her debuting contest, so let's wish her a lot of luck on her first try."

Meanwhile, inside the backstage room, Bianca let out a quiet exhale as her name was announced by the contest's MC. The older teen stood up from her seat and walked towards the exit that led to the stage, but the door opened before she could reach it as Janet walked in. The recent contestant smiled slightly when she saw Bianca already near the doorway. "Good luck, Bianca. I hope you get a good score," she said positively.

"Don't worry, I'll definitely do my best," Bianca replied, briefly returning the smile to Janet. "Definitely won't be as good or stellar as your performance, but I hope me and Candace can give a good enough show to make it to the next round." She paused slightly. "Oh, and by the way, you and Beautifly were fantastic. Congratulations on that performance."

Janet nodded once, appreciating the praise. Beside her, Beautifly let out a soft shrill cry of gratitude. "I'll be waiting for you in the battle rounds, then." She gave Bianca a reassuring pat on the back and then walked aside to let her pass.

Bianca slowly steeled herself for her upcoming performance. She knew that her characteristically confident and assertive attitude would help her greatly in creating a good first impression on the judges. _'This is it,'_ Bianca thought, looking at the door that led to the stage. _'I've done many art expositions at Alto Mare, both local and touristic… I've faced the public a lot before. This can't be that hard, it's nothing knew or unknown to me save for the involvement of Pokémon.'_ With a small sigh to relax and reassure her mind, as well as a quick adjustment to make sure her white miniskirt and beret as well as her light green shirt were all neat and tidy, she began to walk towards the stage as confidently as she could.

Back in the stands, Bianca's naming immediately made her friends perk up. "Oh, Bianca's next," Ash commented, leaning forward eagerly. "I wonder what she prepared for this. How is it, Latias?" he asked.

"_It's good,"_ Latias promised. _"We managed to come up with something."_

"I'm just concerned about how she'll be able to pull through with this," Brock said, his tone slightly worried. "After all, scores have been decent and high, and Janet got a stellar score across the judge board just now."

_"You'll see what we prepared. Hopefully you guys will be surprised,"_ Latias said telepathically. _"And of course be pleased about it."_

_"I just hope she doesn't screw up or something," _Latios commented. His sister glared at him and smacked him once on the head._ "Hey!" _Latios cried out, rubbing his head with his claws while glaring back at her. Latias stuck her tongue out at him.

Bianca walked out towards the arena and calmly stood in front of the stage. The artist pulled out a Pokéball and then hurled it towards the stage. "Candace, come out," she said as the ball popped open, letting the Painter Pokémon out. Candace was thankful for being used to large crowds of humans due to her time in the Pokémon Academy, as the crowd she was greeted with was large and imposing. At the very least, she knew stage fright shouldn't be a problem.

"A Smeargle, huh? Well, that's an interesting pick for a first timer! Remember that Smeargle can learn pretty much every attack there is, so be wary and expect anything out of this one!" Vivian announced, her voice blaring over the arena's loudspeakers. "Also, that's a cute nickname, by the way."

Bianca smiled at Candace. "Okay, let's do our best. We just practiced this, so let's make it come out smoothly. Candace, use Water Pulse, aim it upwards." Bianca instructed, making sure to keep a calm voice and demeanor to help her Pokémon stay composed.

Candace nodded. "Okay," she said as she put both of her paws together and began to concentrate. An orb of water glowing in a blue hue of energy began to slowly come to life between her paws, and steadily increase in size as she poured more and more power into it. Once she was ready, Candace hurled the orb of water upwards with as much strength as she could.

"Now, use Swift." Bianca said, pointing towards the Water Pulse her normal-type Pokémon had just fired upwards.

Candace rapidly changed attacks, this time her paws began to glow in a golden-colored energy. She took aim as best as she could and fired three star-shaped projectiles upwards, directly at her Water Pulse.

To Bianca and Candace's dismay, the first two Swift stars failed their mark completely, narrowly missing the watery orb as they passed beside it and continued their path upwards where they collided with the roof. To their relief, the third and final star collided head on with the water orb, causing it to explode in an interesting flash of yellow light that reflected neatly with the splashing liquid that was released from the broken Water Pulse.

"Narrow hit, but the appeal's ongoing, let's see what's next!" Vivian narrated, watching the show.

'_Now comes that harder part,'_ Bianca thought as she looked at the several streams and splashes of water that were falling down. She admittedly felt worried. During training, Candace had always displayed focusing problems when trying to use the third attack in a row, and only managed to hit about half of the splashes on her luckiest tries, but with the time almost up and the contest's beginning nearing, she was forced to cut the training and hope that Candace would be able to pull it off, or at least most of it, on-stage. "Now, use Magical Leaf." Bianca ordered gently.

Candace shifted attacks yet again. The Painter Pokémon's paws now began to emit a multicolored veil energy, almost as if it was a colorful rainbow that was twirling around her paws. However, despite the elegance of the attack, it was clear she was struggling to correctly form the move as she had just used two attacks in a very rapid succession, and a third one was putting a lot of strain on the inexperienced Pokémon. Putting in as much effort as she could, she fired a swirling barrage of bright leaves towards the water splashes and streams that were falling to the stage.

Bianca's plan that she had practiced with Smeargle had been to use Magical Leaf to hit the larger water splashes that had originated by breaking the Water Pulse and take advantage of Magical Leaf's colorful energy to create an even better light display than what Swift had done previously. However, with Candace's lack of skill to correctly use a move in rapid succession, plus her exhaustion from the training she had done earlier and the fact that aiming at something like falling water was much harder than a single orb, made Smeargle's final attack end up a mess. All of the leaves completely missed their intended targets. None hit a single falling splash of water and continued their way to harmlessly collide with the roof.

"Uh-oh…" Candace said embarrassedly at the failure and watched as all the water splashed into the arena. She was so distracted with her miss that she didn't notice a stray splash of water until it was too late and it hit her directly, making her squeal out in fright as she was soaked completely. Bianca sighed and face-palmed.

"Oh…well, that didn't turn out well," Vivian muttered, wincing at the end.

Pikachu frowned. "Oops… that… wasn't good."

"_Not at all,"_ Latios said sadly. Latias lowered her gaze sadly, making her brother sympathetically pull her into a tight hug.

"That didn't look good…" Ash muttered.

"Reminds me of your first battles, Ash," Pikachu said to him, smirking afterwards. His comment instantly made the trainer glare at him venomously.

"I guess she was right in refusing to take part due to her lack of preparation, well, at least she _tried_. That's what matters, I guess," Brock commented as he turned to look at the judge panel. They seemed ready to announce their evaluations.

As usual, it was Raoul Contesta who began. "Well, that was, being honest and putting it bluntly, very bad," the main judge began, shaking his head slightly. "Sorry to tell you, miss. But I'll have to be a tough critic on this one. Smeargle clearly lacks the practice and skill to be able to use its attacks fluidly and appropriately, and fails to show herself off while doing so. And, it was clearly struggling on performing the third attack. That being said, the execution of all three moves in general was rather sloppy and lacked grace, style or skill. You'll have to work on that a lot. I do admit, however, that you had a good idea for the concept of your appeal. When the attacks did manage to combine, the effects they created were appealing and actually interesting, but you'll need to work a lot on their consistency and Smeargle's ability to use them gracefully and rapidly to make it a workable appeal that works whenever you desire. I must also commend you for remaining calm and well-composed even as your appeal was falling apart, that gives a lot of confidence to your Pokémon. For your first appeal, it wasn't _that_ bad, sincerely. I've seen much worse and disastrous first-timers, but there's still a lot that needs to improve before you start turning into a successful coordinator."

"Not remarkable," Mr. Sukizo said simply.

Latios gasped._ "… Wow! He can actually say another word!"_ he cried out in shock while Pikachu's jaw dropped in astonishment.

Nurse Joy frowned after hearing Contesta and Sukizo's evaluation, and went on with her own. "You caught that Smeargle recently, didn't you?" she asked. Bianca wordlessly nodded. Nurse Joy nodded back, acknowledging her answer. "I thought so. Generally, you can't take Pokémon you capture recently and put them into contests fast, they need a lengthy preparation unlike with battles. You should have waited and trained a few weeks before entering a contest instead of rushing it. Smeargle doesn't look in the best shape, its fur doesn't look well kept, and its tail-paint isn't as vivid as it should be, which means it needs nourishment. The fact it can't effectively use three attacks in rapid pace means it needs to build up stamina and focus. I agree with Contesta, however. You had a good idea in your mind for this appeal, now you need to practice and perfect it. With plenty of hard work and training, you can become a good coordinator and your Smeargle a great contest Pokémon."

"We'll, we've heard our judges on this first-timer. It certainly reminds me of the last time I saw an appeal by a first timer. He burnt the entire stage down when he tried a fire-based appeal!" Vivian shivered in fear. "Not good memories. Anyway, let's look at the scores."

Bianca frowned. "I'll be surprised if I get higher than two or three," she muttered to herself. The screens came to life. The screen under Contesta flashed one point five, the screen under Mr. Sukizo showed one point two and finally, the screen under Nurse Joy displayed the number zero point nine.

"Well, there we have it. Her total score is three point six," Vivian announced. "Better luck next time." Bianca nodded wordlessly and returned the wet Smeargle back to her Pokéball. She turned around and began to head towards the backstage. The crowd was mainly silent, while some clapped slowly in recognition to her effort on her first time.

Raoul Contesta looked at her as she passed between him and Vivian. "Don't feel our criticism was made to belittle you," he began, making Bianca pause and turn to look at him. "Nor let it hurt the start of your career or make you think you're not good enough. As Vivian said, there's been worst first timers. Our verdict as the judge panel can be thought as good advice if you listen to it and train hard to overcome it. I hope that your performance today doesn't offset your venture into contests. I hope to see you in another contest in the future, and to see how much you've improved."

Bianca smiled at him slightly. "Thanks for the sincerity. I'll think about it," she responded before resuming her walk towards backstage while Vivian called out the next coordinator on to the stage.

"_Are you okay?"_ Latias asked telepathically. She was surprised, but still glad, that her empathy wasn't picking up anything excessively negative from the young artist.

'_I'm fine, Latias,'_ Bianca thought, knowing her thoughts would be picked up by the dragoness. She didn't turn around and kept walking normally. _'To be fair, I kind of expected it'd go like this.'_

"_You know, this reminds me of the very first time you showed one of your paintings in a public art exposition at Alto Mare,"_ Latios commented, thinking back to the occasion. _"That was several years ago. You were… Fifteen? Sixteen? I can't remember exactly. Odd, I'm a psychic. I should remember perfectly."_

That comment made Bianca pause slightly, the memory returning to her rather freshly. She found that she still remembered it rather vividly. It had been the very first time she had tried to venture into exposing her love of art to the public and participate in it. She had been an amateur aspiring artist, and while she loved art and appreciated it, she had never really dwelled into doing it extensively. She had tried her luck in an art exposition contest held in Alto Mare's museum and remembered she had high hopes for her drawing, even if she later found out it wasn't good at all. It didn't end quite well for her. _'I was fourteen, Latios,'_ she corrected, smiling softly at the memory. _'I got a score of zero, placed last, and was removed from the exposition board very fast.' _

"_And then you worked hard to improve and placed first on the one held next year," _Latias said telepathically, also joining the thought back to fond memories. _"It was then that you discovered your natural talent for art and decided to become an artist, instead of just appreciating art. You began to create it too."_

"_Will the same thing happen in contests?" _Latios asked curiously._ "You said you'd decide if you'd become a coordinator or not after this one contest. From the looks of your appeal and your score, it seems like not. But will you repeat what happened with art?"_

'_I don't know, Latios, I'll think about and give my answer when I'm ready,' _Bianca responded, walking into the backstage room.

"Uh, I guess you were right about not being prepared for this," Janet said sadly as she watched Bianca walk in. "If it makes you feel better, my first time appealing in a contest got me a five point nine score. And I _did_ have time to prepare and train for it. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Janet," Bianca said dismissively, going towards a couch and taking a seat. She was glad that none of the coordinators in the room seemed to glance at her or say anything on her disastrous performance. _'Well, if they're all coordinators, they all have to have gone through a first appeal at some point, and probably had a similar experience to mine if Janet is anything to go by,' _she thought to herself.

Janet walked after her and took at seat beside her. "I'm sorry for dragging you into his," she apologized.

Bianca shook her head slightly. "Don't worry, all's fine, Janet," she said gently. "Really, I didn't get my hopes up high in the first place. I did my best and I failed, end of story. I'm not going to feel bad over it."

Janet smiled. "That's the spirit! I was very worried this bad performance made you think twice about becoming a coordinator. Think you'll actually carry on? You've got a Pokémon, experienced friends that are willing to help you and a contest pass, that's all you need to get going."

Bianca hummed, thoughtful. After several seconds, she replied with the exact same thing she had told her dragon friend, "I'm… not sure. I'll think about it." She stood up and glanced at the door leading to the arena, and then at Janet. "Good luck in the battle rounds, I'll be rooting for you."

Janet grinned slightly. "Thanks, Bianca."

"I'll go back with my friends now," Bianca told her as she turned around and headed towards the exit. Janet watched her leave quietly, hoping that the artist would decide to become a full-time coordinator.

The Alto Mare artist quietly walked along the corridor that lead towards the main entrance of the building, which had the entries for the corridors that led across the entire building's stands. As she reached it, she walked into the reception area. Bianca looked at the doorway leading towards the stands. After several long seconds she glanced at the exit of the entire building. She knew that one of the things her friends would ask her about would be if she would continue being a coordinator, as evidenced by Latios asking about it. She silently walked towards the exit, leaving Rustboro Hall. Bianca decided to make her decision, hard as it may be, once and for all.

The older teen smiled softly at the sight that greeted her upon exiting the building. The treetops were covered in an ethereal glow of soft orange hue from the dim sunlight that barely escaped the horizon, where the sun was slowly setting. She walked to a small patch of grass under the shade of a large tree, but still close to Rustboro Hall, and took a seat on it with her legs crossed.

Bianca looked at the setting sun, her face calm and neutral as she let her thoughts trail. With her disappointing performance on her appeal fresh in her mind, she knew it was the best time to make a decision on whether she'd become a coordinator or not. She glanced at Rustboro Hall when she heard the distant sound of clapping and cheering, no doubt aimed towards the performance of whatever coordinator had to perform after her.

'_Should I become a coordinator?'_ Bianca wondered in her mind, returning her gaze to the horizon. _'I can't say that being in the arena wasn't interesting or fun, because it was.' _She let out a long, drawn out breath. "_That's even if it ended in a disaster for me and Candace.' _She paused, remembering about her Pokémon. She reached for her handbag and opened it, taking out a single Pokéball. She pushed the button on the center and released the Painter Pokémon in a single flash of white light. "Hello, Candace," she greeted politely.

Candace looked at Bianca and lowered her head, disappointed. "I'm sorry, I wasn't able to pull it off…" she apologized.

"Latias and Latios aren't here, so I can't understand you. Though I have a good idea of what you said," she responded and smiled softly afterwards. The woman reached down and petted the normal-type, frowning slightly when she felt the wet fur, moistened by her own Water Pulse. "Don't worry, it's alright, Candace. If anything it's my fault for not being more adamant about not participating in this contest so we had time to prepare. If they really wanted to see me try a contest, I should have made them wait. Or, if we _were_ going to participate today, I should have tried a two-move appeal instead of trying to force you into using three moves even when you had problems with it. Anyway, you have nothing to blame yourself for."

Candace looked at Bianca for several instants before nodding slowly. She found herself greatly appreciating the comprehension her trainer was giving her, which only cemented her thoughts that she had definitely chosen the right trainer to go along with. "Thanks," she said gratefully, even if she knew Bianca couldn't understand her.

Bianca kept petting the Painter Pokémon tenderly, resuming her trail of thoughts. Her mind went back to the situation Latios had reminded her of, how she had failed in her very first art exposition terribly and how her desire to prove herself next year was what had led her to discover her natural talent for art. She glanced back at the contest hall, thinking about what Raoul Contesta and Janet had said after her performance. Would she let her atrocious performance block out any chances of becoming a coordinator? She hadn't let a horrible art experience block her artistic career, and that ended being one of the best choices of her life. Now, she was a very popular figure in Alto Mare, and her works were scattered all over the city, and some even abroad.

Bianca returned her gaze to Smeargle, who was now resting besides her. She found herself feeling very attached to the Painter Pokémon, despite meeting her only a few days ago. _'A Pokémon Trainer can hold six Pokémon in total… if I go for it… just what Pokémon would I get in the process? I'm attached to just one and I still have five slots open,' _she thought. With her thoughts drifting to Ash's Pokémon for reference, she reached inside her handbag again and this time took out her Sketchbook, and began looking through the pages. The most prominent figures in her art were obviously her beloved friends Latias and Latios, however, she had a few sketches of Ash's other Pokémon.

'_Pidgeot…'_ Bianca thought as she landed on a page that had a sketch of Pidgeot that she had done the day Pidgeot had dealt with the annoying Taillow flock, which also the very same day she had met Candace. _'Pidgeot's so strong and powerful, yet so friendly, caring and loving at the same time…'_ She idly flipped through more pages, smiling softly at the art she came across. _'Larvitar and Phanpy, oh, those two little toddlers.'_ She resisted the urge to giggle at the sketch she had done of them playing together. She flipped a couple more pages, landing on a different drawing. _'Pikachu, Ash's best friend. Caring and protective, yet so snide, sarcastic and snarky at the same time. He's like an ideal partner for Latios.'_ She closed her sketchbook, looking up at the yellowish sky. _'All of Ash's Pokémon are so unique, their ways of thinking and personalities so different from one another. I wonder, if I had my own Pokémon team, just who would make it out? What Pokémon would I meet and befriend? Would they be like Candace? Or like some of Ash's Pokémon?' _she wondered, letting her creative mind fly on what Pokémon she could meet. Pokémon of her _own _and no one else's.

No longer would she have to rely on Ash's Pokémon for protection or just to interact with Pokémon in general. She'd have her own Pokémon, her own friends that'd obey and protect her. Pokémon friends that'd regard her as their trainer. The hardest part of that, which was responsibly caring for them, raising them and training them, she knew she had Ash and Brock to help her out in every way.

'_I've seen so many contests, I like this. The idea of more Pokémon is appealing… so why not?'_ Bianca thought to herself, slowly convincing herself more and more. She realized that in her thinking and handling her book she had stopped paying attention to her only Pokémon. She idly reached towards Candace and started petting her, making the Painter Pokémon let out a soft hum and press against her side. _'I had a terrible start at art. I've had a terrible start at contests… what a coincidence. I'm gonna do it. I won't let this bad contest get the best of me. I'll show my friends and Janet just what I'm capable of.'_ Bianca's gaze remained settled on the horizon, sitting quietly alongside her Smeargle as she let time pass, just relaxing as she slowly made up her mind…

…

"Hello, guys," Bianca greeted her friends as she approached them, making her way through the stands to reach the spot where they were.

"Where were you?" Ash asked, turning to look at her. "I thought you'd get here when your appeal ended, it's been like, an hour."

"_Bit more, actually,"_ Latias said in their minds.

"Yeah, just had some things I wanted to think about, so I went outside to get some fresh air," Bianca responded. "What did I miss?" she asked, turning to look at the arena. She saw Janet and another guy with a Venomoth walking towards the arena. "Seems like it's the battle rounds already."

"You missed pretty much the entire contest," Brock answered. "This is the final battle. Janet's taking on this guy named Chaz for the Ribbon, apparently they know each other. Also, sorry to tell you, they displayed the score of the twenty appeals on the screens. You were last place… second-last place had over twelve more points than you did." His looked turned sympathetic. "Are you okay?" he asked, concerned.

Ash nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it went bad." He frowned. "Are you sad? Or feeling bad?"

Bianca blinked at them. "Why does everyone expect me to be feeling terrible about losing?" she questioned them. "Yes, I was last place by a lot. But I kind of deserved it with my non-existent preparation."

"Well, I'd feel pretty terrible if I lost a battle this bad," Ash replied, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, you definitely would. I can think up lots of examples. Like the time you lost to Ritchie in the Kanto League. Or when you lost to Blaine," Pikachu interrupted, making Ash's eyes twitch.

"I seem to recall you looking very dejected when you forfeited to me on our first battle at the Pewter Gym Battle," Brock commented, making Ash groan and wish the topic to end as fast as possible.

"Ash was ten by then and immature. That's how youngsters take defeat. I'm eighteen. I'm not going to wallow in pain at losing badly," Bianca told them simply, shrugging afterwards. "Plus, next contest…" She smirked. "I'll be ready for it."

Everyone froze the instant Bianca finished talking, just as the battle between Janet's Beautifly and Chaz's Venomoth for the Contest Ribbon began. Vivian's commentary died down as did the crowd's cheering when the night's final battle got underway. _"There's gonna be… a next time?"_ Latias questioned slowly, her eyes widening in hope as she looked down at Bianca.

"Yep," Bianca confirmed.

"Does that mean…" Ash began, trailing off.

"Yes. It means I've decided to become a Pokémon Coordinator," Bianca stated firmly. No doubt in her voice at all.

Brock smiled. "Congratulations, Bianca. That's what I hoped for the most. This will certainly make our journey even more engaging and fun by giving you a permanent activity. And will give us five more Pokémon friends for sure."

Bianca nodded. "I want to prove to myself that I can do it. That I can win a contest. And, the chance of having more Pokémon is very interesting. Also, I'd like to face and win against Janet one day. She got me into today's mess." She grinned slightly as she turned to gaze at the arena just as Janet's Beautifly used an impressive Flash attack to break Venomoth's Psychic attack, the bright and pretty flash shattering the Poison Moth's Pokémon mental concentration. The expertise of using such a visually appealing attack to make a very creative defensive maneuver made Chaz lose a decent chunk of his points. "I kind of need to get payback against her," Bianca finished, chuckling slightly.

Latios chuckled_. "Ooh, I like the sound of that,"_ he commented psychically. _"Anyway, good for you, Bianca. Just like your art, me and Latias back you up for it all the way."_

"You can expect us to help you out in all we can do to get you started caring for multiple Pokémon," Brock offered. "More breeding practice for me."

"Thanks, I knew I could count on you guys," Bianca replied gratefully.

Latias hummed, glancing at the battle playing out before them. Currently, Janet had a very clear advantage both in combat and in the score line. She had well over sixty percent of her points left, while her opponent was struggling with only twenty-five percent and the timer was starting to consume itself. And combat-wise, Janet's Beautifly was clearly dominating the contest. Her attacks projected an air of superiority that seemed contagious to the crowd, and with amazing ease and Janet's guidance she was countering and turning her opponent's moves and tactics against him. Latias looked at Bianca. Perhaps, there might be a chance for her to try something more enjoyable than battles.

Several moments later. "And time's over!" Vivian shouted into the microphone the exact instant the timer reached zero, signifying the end of the battle. "And looking at the points, this battle goes to Janet by a very large margin!" she announced, making the crowd erupt in cheers and applause.

"She was fantastic," Brock noted to his friends, clapping along with the crowd.

"_No, she's not gonna marry you,"_ Latias said in his mind, making the breeder slump down on his seat in cold disappointment.

Ash nodded. "Okay, contests are really fun. I liked it. Good luck beating her, Bianca," the trainer told her. "She's gonna be your first rival."

"Oh, I will… I will…" Bianca promised as she watched Janet be awarded the contest ribbon and the entire crowd applaud her dominant and strong performance. "One day… that will be me. Lifting a contest ribbon before a cheering crowd. Like I recovered from a bad start to my art career, the same will happen in contests. I promise it."

"_That's the spirit!"_ Latias cheered, excited at the prospect of Bianca becoming a coordinator. Still, her mind wandered on the many possibilities this opened to _her_ in particular…

* * *

><p><strong>Author Notes:<strong> Finally, Chapter 15 is here. I would have gotten it done faster but I faced some difficulties. Anyway, here it is. I decided to simplify the rest of the contest because I felt it wasn't needed to go into excessive detail about it after Bianca's elimination. When she does better, a much longer contest shall await xD

Brace yourselves. Next chapter, Ash vs Roxanne! Will he earn that second badge?


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